Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisIconic newscaster and Buddhist teacher chronicles the 1960s and ‘70s in India, the Bay Area, and beyondJoin “Scoop” Nisker on a wild ride from West to East and back in his quest for true self and enlightenment. Combining the best elements of memoir and social commentary, Nisker shares his own story to illuminate the spiritual hunger of modern America. His journey begins in Nebraska as the only young man in his small town to be Bar Mitzvah’ed, through the heyday of the Beats and hippies in the Bay Area from his vantage point as a high-profile newscaster, the birth of the environmental movement, and the social and spiritual blossoming of the West. This is a personal, guided tour of the outer and inner movements that joined together into today’s mindfulness movement, written by one of the leaders of both. 

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Book SynopsisIt''s a promise India''s most beloved writer delivers on in her irreverent memoir about the year leading up to her landmark seventy-fifth birthday. Quintessential exuberance and keen observations firmly in place, she tells us about travelling solo, feasting (and fasting) with family and friends, the triumphs and losses that accompany ageing, the vagaries and vulnerabilities of being a writer and, above all, how food connects people in the most unexpected places and delightful ways. From where to find the most delicious lassi in Jaipur, her obsession with kasundi and conversations with a Nobel Laureate who is a gourmet to M.F. Husain''s last food khwaish and what''s served at Aamir Khan''s dinner table, Shobhaa takes us into the dining rooms of politicians, artists and celebrities, to festivals and parties and other social events, and, more privately, into her home, where food is always the prime subject of conversation.

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Book SynopsisLinda Wagner-Martin is Frank Borden Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature Emerita at The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is the author or editor of over 50 books, including Toni Morrison, A Literary Life (Macmillan, 2015), The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (ed. with Cathy N. Davidson, Oxford University Press, 1995), and Maya Angelou: Adventurous Spirit (Bloomsbury 2015, 2021 2nd ed). She is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Hubbell Medal from the Modern Language Association. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, at Rollins College, at Bellagio and at Bogliasco. She has served as president of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society and the American Literature Division of the Modern Language Association. She has won many teaching awards, particularly at Michigan State University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating, richly illustrated exploration of the poignant origins of Rudyard Kipling’s world-famous children’s classicTrade Review“A scrupulous and poignant account of how love and loss inspired the Just So Stories”—Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian“In this concise and remarkable book...Batchelor guides us expertly...drawing on multiple sources and making intriguing connections between Kipling’s stories for children and for adults.”—John Carey, The Sunday Times “Fluent, engaging and gently erudite”—Boyd Tonkin, The Economist“Batchelor, who places the Just So Stories directly in the context of Kipling's private and public life, acknowledges that the stories contain traces of racism and imperialism, traits which were much more evident in Kipling's later works [and] highlights the stories for their humour and the deliverance of moral lessons.”—Colin Steele, Canberra Times “Intelligent, balanced, finely-written...John Batchelor, an academic whose own head teems with Edwardian history and books, opens [Kipling] up like a splayed tangerine, each segment of which is tagged to a Just So story.”—Nicola Shulman, The Oldie“Reading Kipling through the lens of his best-loved book makes a good introduction to his work.”—Janet Montefiore, Times Literary Supplement“Batchelor discusses each of the stories in turn, interweaving his erudite commentary with a penetrating exploration of Kipling's own story, and of his genius as a writer — not overlooking the brilliance of Kipling as illustrator of his own work.”—John Pridmore, Church Times“Batchelor’s book brings out the beauty of Kipling’s original volume and reveals much about this sad and complex man.”—Angela Wintle, Sussex Life'Batchelor’s achievement is to interweave a close reading of Kipling’s Just so Stories and their illustrations with a richly suggestive exploration of Kipling’s complexity as a man and his protean genius as a writer.’—Phillip Mallett, author of Rudyard Kipling: A Literary Life‘Beautiful … How the Just so Stories Were Made cracks through the imperial crustiness that many detest to reach into the warm heart and cool art of the great craftsman that so many admire. Batchelor movingly illuminates how personal grief and sorrow were integral to Kipling’s finest and most enduring work.’—Nicholas Rankin, author of Dead Man’s Chest: Travels after Robert Louis Stevenson'John Batchelor is the perfect commentator on the Just so Stories: unobtrusive, knowledgeable, striking just the right balance between literary gossip and erudite illumination. He renews the delight of reading Kipling at his best.’—Alberto Manguel

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Book SynopsisByron, more than any other poet, has come to personify the poet as rebel; imaginative and lawless, reaching beyond race, creed or frontier, his notorious flaws redeemed by a magnetism and ultimately a heroism that by ending in tragedy raised it and him from the particular to the universal.Everything about Lord George Gordon Byron was a paradox - insider and outsider, beautiful and deformed, serious and facetious, profligate but on occasion miserly, and possessed of a fierce intelligence trapped forever in a child''s magic and malices. He was also a great poet, but as he reminded us, poetry is a distinct faculty and has little to do with the individual life of its creator.Edna O''Brien''s exemplary biography focuses upon the diverse and colourful women in Byron''s life.''O''Brien charts the many loves of the notorious 19th-century poet''s reckless life in immediate and candid prose''Sunday Telegraph''Edna O''Brien has always had a gift fTrade Review'A beguiling blend of sympathy, humour and, of course, her signature lilting style... a delightful, though poignant, account' - MAIL ON SUNDAY'O'Brien charts the many loves of the notorious nineteenthth-century poet's reckless life in immediate and candid prose' - STELLA'Reading this compact and hugely enjoyable retelling of his life, one feels the inevitability of the biographer and her subject' - DAILY TELEGRAPH'Edna O'Brien has always had a gift for writing about affairs of the heart' - GUARDIAN'There is much to enjoy in this idiosyncratic and highly readable account of the poet whose writing enthralled and whose actions appalled in equal measure' - INDEPENDENT'Immaculately researched and beautifully written' - CHOICE

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Book SynopsisThe most authoritative, comprehensive, perceptive biography of R. L. Stevenson to date, using for the first time his collected correspondence which has been unavailable to all previous writers.The short life of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) was as adventurous as almost anything in his fiction: his travels, illness, struggles to become a writer, relationships with his volatile wife and step-family, friendships and quarrels have fascinated readers for over a century. In his time he was both engineer and aesthete, dutiful son and reckless lover, Scotsman and South Sea Islander, Covenanter and atheist. Stevenson's books, including Treasure Island', The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and Kidnapped', have achieved world fame; others The Master of Ballantrae', A Child's Garden of Verses', Travels with a Donkey' remain all-time favourites. His unique gift for storytelling and dramatic characterisation has meant that some of his characters live in the consciousness even of those wTrade Review'Rich and colourful!Harman's book is a delight from beginning to end.' John Carey, Sunday Times 'Excellent!RLS has never been portrayed with such diligence and care!her portraits of Stevenson's nearest and dearest are also unsurpassed.' Independent on Sunday 'Cool, ironic and often funny!appreciative, extremely subtle!lively accessible!compelling.' Financial Times 'A smoothly assembled and readable study which confirms Stevenson as a writer of the first importance.' Independent 'Vivid and engaging!Stevenson emerges from her pages as a vital, courageous, contrary and exhilarating figure.' TLS Praise for 'Fanny Burney': 'A great achievement.' Andrew Marr, Observer 'Excellent.' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times

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

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Book SynopsisA ground-breaking and intensely revealing examination of the life of the 20th century''s most iconic writer. Ernest Hemingway was an involuntary chameleon, who would shift seamlessly from a self-cultivated image of hero, aesthetic radical, and existential non-conformist to a figure made up at various points of selfishness, hypocrisy, self-delusion, narcissism and arbitrary vindictiveness.Richard Bradford shows that Hemingway''s work is by parts erratic and unique because it was tied into these unpredictable, bizarre features of his personality. Impressionism and subjectivity always play some part in the making of literary works. Some authors try to subdue them while others treat them as the essentials of creativity but they endure as a ubiquitous element of all literature. They are the writer''s private signature, their authorial fingerprint.In this ground-breaking and intensely revealing new biography, including previously unpublished letters from the HemingwTrade ReviewA blistering, rollicking, horribly convincing account of a compelling literary monster ... [a] fascinating book. * The Sunday Times *In a new revisionist biography by Richard Bradford, we learn, from his astute analysis of previously unpublished letters from the Hemingway archive that there is indeed a good deal more to know about this ‘scrapper intellectual’, and ‘role player’. * The Irish Independent *Vivid and pugnacious... it will ruffle a few feathers among those wedded to the image of him as all-American literary hero -- Martin Stannard, author of Muriel Spark: The BiographyTable of ContentsList of Plates List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Young Deceiver 2 An American in Paris 3 Key West 4 Conflicts 5 War: With Martha 6 Secrets and Lies 7 Everywhere and Nowhere Epilogue Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Critics'' Pick for 2023 Born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1919, George Weidenfeld fled to England in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime. There he began a career in publishing that would make him one of the most influential figures in the industry. Over the course of his long and illustrious career he championed some of the most important voices of the twentieth century, from Vladimir Nabokov, Mary McCarthy and Saul Bellow to Harold Wilson, Isaiah Berlin and Henry Kissinger.But what do we know about the man himself? Was he, as described by some, the ''greatest salesperson'', ''the world''s best networker'', ''the publisher''s publisher'' and ''a great intellectual''? Was his lifelong effort to be the world''s most famous host a cover for his desperate loneliness? Who, in fact, was the real George Weidenfeld and how did he rise so successfully within the ranks of London and New York society? Providing a full, unvarnished and at times difTrade ReviewA history of the golden age of publishing from the perspective of one man . . . fascinating -- Anne de Courcy * SPECTATOR *A marvellous biography . . . Thomas Harding has brought a great publisher and the shenanigans of the book trade gloriously to life -- Jilly Cooper * DAILY MAIL *An entertaining biography . . . The Maverick is packed with fascinating accounts of book deals and debacles during the 'golden age of publishing,' as well as plenty of high-society gossip * WASHINGTON POST *Thomas Harding's admirably even-handed and readable biography places Weidenfeld in both his social and cultural contexts, never excusing his more dubious actions, but also celebrating his undeniable pizzazz, application and drive -- Alexander Larman * OBSERVER *The Maverick anchors George Weidenfeld as one of the foremost influencers in modern literature and a man who rose from extraordinary circumstances to lead an even more extraordinary life and legacy. A treasure trove of insight and history -- ARIANNA HUFFINGTONMeticulously researched, cunningly constructed and compellingly written. A vivid account of publishing's glory years told through the action-packed life of one of its most charismatic pioneers -- ANTHONY HOLDENThe Maverick recalls a champion of ideas with a knack for networking and a taste for the high life . . . an organizational feat * NEW YORK TIMES *Uncovers the secrets of a chameolonic outsider who made himself a fixture of the cultural establishment . . . [A] compact, unfussy and well-sourced life * Financial Times *George Weidenfeld was a titan of a man, an irresistible character and something of a genius. This book does him full justice -- SIMON HEFFER, author of THE AGE OF DECADENCE and HIGH MINDS[George Weidenfeld] modernized Britain's small but influential publishing sector. . . The Maverick traces the parallel arcs of Weidenfeld's career and postwar publishing through his contacts and contracts . . . a skillful and subtle study in biography, British attitudes and the book business -- Dominic Green * WALL STREET JOURNAL *Like George Weidenfeld himself, Thomas Harding's accomplishment is substantial, lively and full of interest. The Maverick is a fine biography -- HENRY KISSINGERHarding has fun detailing his subject's four marriages and associated romantic interludes . . . We're always on the edge, wondering if George, the cosmopolitan charmer who made it to the House of Lords, will pull another cracker from the hat -- Andrew Lycett * DAILY MAIL *Offers a behind-the-scenes peek at an imprint that published some of the most seminal works of the 20th century, when books, and the ideas within them, were far more revered. A golden age indeed * IRISH TIMES *A fascinating biography of an unlikely cultural hero. I couldn't put it down -- ALAN POSENER, journalist for Die WeltThe Maverick is a vivid portrait, warts and all, of perhaps the most successful publisher in post-war Britain. But it is much more than this - a gripping study of the assimilation of Jewish emigres into Britain's strangely rigid but porous class system, a guide to the golden age of publishing, an analysis of post-war intellectual life through a succession of landmark books -- ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE, Bloomberg OpinionIf a publisher can be called a genius . . . [George Weidenfeld] undoubtedly merits a place on this list. [He made] an astounding contribution to the world of literature and ideas. The riveting standout among Harding's chapters is the story of Weidenfeld's publication, in 1976, of David Pryce-Jones's biography of Unity Mitford -- Mark Bostridge * THE OLDIE *Weidenfeld was perhaps the most well-connected man in the Western world, whose calls to politicians, thinkers, business leaders and philanthropists - even popes - would always be taken. The strength of Thomas Harding's biography is the context it provides . . . by structuring the book as a series of chapters telling the stories behind Weidenfeld's publication of various key books, and then diverting within those stories to other aspects of his life - ignoring chronology to explore what made Weidenfeld tick, what he was interested in and what he was doing - The Maverick well reflects Weidenfeld himself, who was never at any time focused on just one thing . . . a sensitive and worthy study of a great man * THE JEWISH CHRONICLE *[An] intriguing life story * SUNDAY INDEPENDENT *A revealing look behind the scenes . . . Harding takes an intriguing approach by looking at Weidenfeld's life story through the lens of specific books he published. Along the way, readers are treated to firsthand accounts of author versus publisher spats and insights into the challenges of managing international rights for a surefire bestseller . . . will leave readers with a vivid picture of the working life of a publisher * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *Thomas Harding has doggedly unearthed fascinating and surprising tales from George Weidenfeld's life as he rose from poverty and Nazi persecution to become one of the world's most powerful publishers. Harding reveals a complex personality in a richly told narrative that leaves the reader awed -- LYNN MEDFORD, former editor, Washington Post Magazine[George Weidenfeld] was fascinating in many ways. [He] had more backbone than most . . . his life was courageous, too * THE ECONOMIST *Makes the inspired choice of leading with the books that built the publisher's fame and fortune . . . Harding's approach works exceptionally well and allows him to cover a huge amount of ground . . . Will inform and entertain in equal measure * PROSPECT *

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Book Synopsis‘I had only one eye, I was hungry and cold, yet I wanted to live… so that I could tell it all just as I’ve told you.’ - From Zofia Nalkowska’s Medallions (1947). Witness to two world wars and Poland’s struggle for independence, Zofia Nalkowska’s commitment to recording all is her gift to European literature. Her own story of love affairs, family loyalty and survival is remarkable in itself. Yet, her determination to record others’ truth, however painful, ties her fate to a nation whose battle for identity is both brutal and romantic. Her most renowned work, Medallions, a collection of short stories, exposes and restores dignity to people reduced, through Nazi occupation, to burnt out ghettos and guillotined heads heaped ‘like potatoes’. In contrast, as a keen and visionary observer of beauty, Nalkowska is innovative in exploring motherhood’s psychological imprint and the blurred boundaries of male and female relationships. Drawing on her own background as a poet and Polish Studies graduate, Jenny’s Robertson’s literary biography celebrates the achievements of a pioneering writer whose love of life not only propelled her to fame, but gave her the courage to witness atrocity. In doing so, Nalkowska’s life and writing reflect and inform Europe's cultural heritage.Trade Review“Zofia always believed that women should have the same rights as men, not just to vote, but to love whoever they pleased. She was a feminist avant la lettre, her feminism was in her actions and her life.” – Scottish Review"Nałkowska has been sadly overlooked outside her native land. Jenny Robertson’s biography is a bold and often gripping attempt to set this right...unputdownable." — European Literature Network Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix A word about Polish xii Introduction 1 1 Youth absorbed in the third person 3 2 Icy fields – the challenge of a woman writer 11 3 Life in its entirety 19 4 Laying out life in patterns 30 5 Encircled by fire 39 6 Independent employment 50 7 Living on the edge 57 8 Unkind love 72 9 House of women 86 10 My highest level 101 11 Literature rejuvenates 114 12 Boundary and beyond 124 13 Storm clouds near and far 132 14 Taken to the gates of hell 142 15 Bombardment 149 16 A rosary of deaths 163 17 That smoking wound 176 18 Cameos of crime 188 19 Restored to life 202 20 Knots of life 214 In Memoriam 223 Notes 225 Bibliography 239 Acknowledgements 243

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Book SynopsisThe first English-language biography of one of the great literary talents of the twentieth century, written by his award-winning translatorTrade Review“An accurate, independent, and well-researched English life . . . There is a delicacy in [Bernofsky’s] approach, a will-to-kindness, an openness to other, previously rejected possibilities.”—Michael Hofmann, New York Review of Books“A diligent biography . . . [Walser’s] miniatures account for some of the most sublimely joyful writing of the past century . . . Ms. Bernofsky wants to peer behind the smiling naïf to better glimpse the lonely, erratic artist.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal“As Susan Bernofsky's authoritative, moving biography demonstrates, Walser made of his own multiform solitudes a gift to the outside world, offering readers an existential sympathy of a kind for which only he could find the appropriate literary expression.”—Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement“Elegant [and] perceptive . . . A surprising, brilliant look at a man who never stopped looking inward.”—Michael Schaub, National Book Critics CircleFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography “In this nuanced, astute, and revelatory biography, Susan Bernofsky gives us Walser the man—mysterious, intellectually adventuresome, humble, an artist of the first order. So, too, is Bernofsky's exceptional book: of the first order.”—Hilton Als“Susan Bernofsky's deep and decades-long involvement with Robert Walser's work has resulted in a meticulously researched, lively narrative and astute critical study of this complex and appealing writer. Clairvoyant of the Small is one of the best biographies I've read in a long time.”—Lydia Davis“Robert Walser is the perfect pathetic poet: pithy, awkward, drinks too much, sibling rivalrous, ambitious, broke, and mentally ill. Was he proto queer or trans, this red headed writer who next to Gertrude Stein might be the most influential writer of our moment? Riveting and heart-breaking, this biography kept me drunk for days.”—Eileen Myles"Written with true love, Susan Bernofsky’s meticulously investigated book is a sensitive and subtle analysis of Robert Walser’s radical life and work, casting a blazing light on this giant of literature."—Thomas Hirschhorn“A magnificent work of scholarship and among the finest literary biographies I’ve ever read—gorgeously written, immensely well researched, and addictively readable.”—Samuel Frederick, The Pennsylvania State University

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Tomaselli’s book moves dexterously between [Wollstonecraft’s] feelings and reasonings, producing a portrait that is both fresh and compelling."---Barbara Taylor, The Guardian"Tomaselli gives us an intimate portrait of the passionate, life-loving woman behind the public moralist. . . . [A] clever and humane book."---Ruth Scurr, The Spectator"As an intellectual biography, Tomaselli’s account is both forensic and fascinating."---Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times"Fortitude is a quality that Tomaselli brings to the fore in her study of Mary Wollstonecraft, sensitively created from an informed overview of her subject’s writings."---Miranda Seymour, New York Review of Books"Rigorously researched and beautifully crafted" * New Humanist *"Sylvana Tomaselli invites us to immerse ourselves into Mary Wollstonecraft’s world, looking at how she regarded family life, politics, current affairs and the roles of men and women in society." * Family Tree Magazine *"Tomaselli has herself written a book which is both inspiring and thought-provoking. In a word, Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics should be compulsory reading for all teachers and students of Wollstonecraft and eighteenth-century political thought."---Max Skjönsberg, Intellectual History Review"This book thoughtfully and thematically walks the reader through Wollstonecraft’s work, developing a coherent philosophy from which we still have much to learn. Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics is brilliant in its combination of ease of reading, academic rigour and captivating writing. Whether the reader is an undergraduate student, seeking to place Wollstonecraft in greater context, an intrigued member of the public or a seasoned professor of political theory, Tomaselli’s work is accessible to all and has something new to reveal to all of us about a remarkable woman that history is just beginning to remember fully."---Isobel Clare, LSE Review of Books"A very engaging and lively study of a remarkable woman."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"A pleasure to read."---Jennifer Thorn, Eighteenth-Century Studies Review"A readable, meticulously researched, intellectual biography and introduction to Wollstonecraft’s work that underscores her unwavering desire to create a better, more just world for all humans, not just women."---Ashley Cross, European Romantic Review"Luminous"---Stephen Marston, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books"Tomaselli succeeds in a masterly exposition of every facet of Wollstonecraft’s views. She draws out the complexities, contradictions and changes over time in Wollstonecraft’s thought."---Sheila McGregor, Socialist Review"Tomaselli is a good writer and her research is excellent. This is a thoroughly fascinating book, full of enhancing detail."---Alan Dent, Northern Review of Books

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Book SynopsisFirst publication of an index-card diary in which Nabokov recorded sixty-four dreams and subsequent daytime episodes, allowing the reader a glimpse of his innermost life.Trade Review"One of The Guardian’s Best Books of 2017"

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Otto Gründler Book Prize, The Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University""Winner of the Beatrice White Prize, The English Association, University of Leicester""Winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, The British Academy""Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, The Wolfson Foundation""Longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown, Historical Writers’ Association""Finalist for the PROSE Award in Biography and Autobiography, Association of American Publishers""One of The Times' Best Literary Non-Fiction Books of 2019""One of the Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2019""One of the Sunday Times' Best Literary Books of 2019""A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2020"

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2020: Critics' Picks""Foster’s characteristic brio brings Heaney to life again. . . . On Seamus Heaney, with its abundant account of his life, its illuminating analysis of his work, and the generous quotations from favourite poems, should find a place on bookshelves all over Ireland and beyond."---Clíona Ní Ríordáin, Irish Times"A sparkling memorial to an utterly singular poet."---Sebastian Barry, Sydney Morning Herald"[An] excellent new study."---James Parker, The Atlantic"A compact but comprehensive guide."---Seamus Perry, London Review of Books ​​​​​​"This exploration of Heaney’s oeuvre, and the tumultuous times that inspired it, is an immensely enjoyable step towards giving Ireland’s great poet his due."---Maria Crawford, Financial Times"There will be longer, fatter biographical and critical books about Seamus Heaney, but none will be better written, more knowledgeable, more generously understanding than this one."---Anne Chisholm, The Tablet ​​​​​​​"One of the most elegant works of criticism I have ever read."---David Mason, Hudson Review"Engrossing. . . . Undeniably impressive."---Hilary A. White, Irish Independent"Foster brings long-felt passion and measured scholarship to his welcome analysis of the poetry of Seamus Heaney." * RTE *"A concise, meticulously researched account. . . . Foster couples forensic attention to detail with engaging prose."---Tara McEvoy, Times Literary Supplement"More than [in] any other writing on Heaney, you actually get a sense of Heaney’s own personality, his charisma, his friendliness, his warmth, his humour and it’s a hugely respectful biography in that way because you get the sense of Heaney’s own words about himself that have not been made public before and you’ve got the impression, at least, of being in his company and that’s one of the things I was hoping for in the book and it certainly comes across."---Peter Mackay, BBC Radio 3 "Free Thinking""As one would expect of Foster, the suavest Irish historian of his generation, the handling of Irish contexts . . . is impeccable."---David Wheatley, Literary Review"Foster's painstakingly researched and affectionately penned On Seamus Heaney offers an illuminating bite-sized refresher course on one of our greatest literary talents."---David Roy, Irish News"[A] succinct but insightful critical biography that puts the poetry of Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) firmly in the context of his life and times. . . . This reflective and incisive study works both as an academic research aid and as an accessible primer for general poetry readers." * Publishers Weekly *"[A] careful and attentive poetic biography."---Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald"A brief and brilliant study that weaves together the life and work of the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet."---Sunil Khilnani, Open Magazine"The joy of this book emanates from the sense of intimacy that Foster captures in each epoch, enabling readers to get a sense of Heaney’s personality. . . . This book is an essential complement to any study of Heaney’s poetry, as it creates a more comprehensive understanding of how life informs art." * Choice *"A timely perspective on the Northern Irish troubles as experienced and responded to in Heaney’s work."---Fiona O'Connor, Morning Star"If a book on poetry can teach, Roy Foster’s new book about Ireland’s Nobel Prize poet Seamus Heaney shares it all."---Ronn Hartviksen, Chronicle Journal"It is difficult to imagine how a brief, general, fair-minded introduction to Heaney might be bettered . . . . The book is more literary criticism than biography, although it effortlessly combines the two so that it’s difficult to say where one starts and the other ends, which suits Heaney down to the ground. Foster’s trademark elegance, clarity, and skill in shaping a narrative are to the fore, and he remains a more lucid and nuanced reader of Irish poetry than many specialized critics."---Alan Gillis, Irish University Review"Writing with the restraint of the professional academic but with all the vim of a youthful enthusiast, R. F. Foster has published On Seamus Heaney, his take on the life and writings of one of Ireland’s famous poets . . . Foster has captured the young Heaney in a manner that readers can grasp fully, and the description is written in elevated language that is appropriate to the status of its subject. . . . I recommend this book very highly indeed."---Ian Lipke, Queensland Reviewers Collective"[On Seamus Heaney] adds welcome layers to our understanding of Heaney as a poet and of the kind of public intellectual who attains moral standing in the wider world. . . . I hope that others who care about our literary inheritance will use On Seamus Heaney as a standard for writing about writing. Its combination of meticulousness and soul can only enrich our understanding."---Denise Provost, Somerville Times"One of the finest books to date on Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney."---Daniel Picker, New Ulster"A very good 'short book essay' on one of my favorite poets."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution"[Foster’s] knowledge of Heaney is nothing short of encyclopedic. . . . An excellent roadmap for readers."---John Austin Gray, Fare Forward"It’s not the done thing to choose a book of which I’m the dedicatee: even so, RF Foster’s On Seamus Heaney, which is short but runs deep, was for me the richest food for the spirit in 2020."---Jan Dalley, Financial Times"R. F. Foster has herein written an altogether focused, and most vivid account of quite possibly the most important Irish poet of the postwar era."---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews

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Book SynopsisEmblematic of the tensions that white southern women of the era experienced between independent creative expression and traditional familial and community expectations.Trade Review“Sara Mayfield leaves the reader unsure what is fact and what is fiction, and our experience ultimately mirrors hers in provocative ways. She peeks at us alluringly through Horne's lucid prose—as an author, an inventor, and maybe even as a government agent.”—Kathryn McKee, author of Reading Reconstruction: Sherwood Bonner and the Literature of the Post–Civil War South "Montgomery, Alabama, in the early Twentieth Century was an enigma where powerful white men defended the final redoubt of male privilege and the South's romantic past while a generation of women chiseled away the foundation on which male hegemony rested. Sara Mayfield, Tallulah Bankhead, Sara Haardt (Mencken), and Zelda Sayre ((Fitzgerald) lived near each other growing up in Montgomery, graduated to notable careers in theater or as writers who defied conservative social conventions and charted their own lives. Odyssey of a Wandering Mind is an excellent starting place in pursuit of what it meant to strong-minded Alabama women a century ago to be a woman. And the dangers to which that independence exposed them."—Wayne Flynt, author of Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives "With Odyssey of a Wandering Mind, Jennifer Horne brings out of obscurity an Alabama talent often regarded as a supporting player to her more famous friends, Sara Haardt Mencken and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Sara Mayfield was so much more than a biographer of the Southern belles of her generation who chafed against being known merely as “the wife of” their literary-lion husbands. By turns a novelist, playwright, journalist, and an inventor, Mayfield was first and foremost a survivor who led a remarkable life throughout a near century of culture upheaval. Horne does a phenomenal job of humanizing a figure who for decades battled her demons to find her greatest success in her mid-sixties, long after Haardt and Sayre has passed prematurely." —Kirk Curnutt, co-editor with Sara A. Kosiba of The Romance of Regionalism in the Work of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald: The South Side of Paradise

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Book Synopsis2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title In Life of the Indigenous MindDavid Martínez examines the early activism, life, and writings of Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005), the most influential Indigenous activist and writer of the twentieth century and one of the intellectual architects of the Red Power movement. An experienced activist, administrator, and political analyst, Deloria was motivated to activism and writing by his work as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, and he came to view discourse on tribal self-determination as the most important objective for making a viable future for tribes. In this work of both intellectual and activist history, Martínez assesses the early life and legacy of Deloria’s “Red Power Tetralogy,” his most powerful and polemical works: Custer Died for Your Sins (1969), We Talk, You Listen (1970), God Is Red (1973), and Behind tTrade Review"Drawing on the activist-intellectual's personal papers and less well-known writings from the period, Life of the Indigenous Mind is more than mere commentary. Moreover, the book's critical edge distinguishes it from prior scholarship that erred toward hagiography. Overall, it is a long-overdue addition to the existing literature on Vine Deloria, Jr., and on Red Power more generally."—John H. Cable, American Indian Quarterly“The most substantial and important consideration of Deloria’s work to date and deserves a place on any comprehensive American Indian studies shelf.”—Akim Reinhardt, South Dakota History"Martínez has produced a rich and rewarding book. He is balanced in his critiques of Deloria's writings and careful to contextualize Deloria's political motives for self-determination."—Gregory D. Smithers, Native American and Indigenous Studies“An affecting portrait of one of America’s most influential Indigenous rights activists.”—C. T. Vecsey, Choice"Life of the Indigenous Mind is an asset for instructors of American Indian studies. Martínez paints Deloria as a wise elder of the Red Power movement, even in his youth, a portrait that bolsters the argument that he was the intellectual leader American Indians needed at a unique moment in history."—April M. Bond, American Indian Culture and Research Journal“As David Martínez observes, the Indigenous mind is the Indigenous community’s most potent weapon against colonialism. This powerful statement triggers a challenging responsibility: to identify the types of ideas that should inform the efforts of Indigenous intellectuals. Martínez charts a framework for future intersectional analysis, providing an important contribution to the growth of American Indian intellectualism. This book offers a magnificent appraisal of Vine Deloria Jr.’s legacy and the power of critical thought.”—Rebecca Tsosie, Regents’ Professor of Law at the University of Arizona and faculty co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the James E. Rogers College of Law“David Martínez transcends hagiography in this complex analysis of four key early works by Vine Deloria Jr. This fascinating book takes a deep dive into Deloria’s thinking. Martínez does an admirable job of both placing these works in the historical context of turbulent changes in Indian affairs in the United States and illuminating Deloria’s intellectual acumen as he challenged federal bureaucrats, academia, the public at large, and, perhaps most significantly, Indian Country to rethink the place of American Indians in the United States.”—David R. M. Beck, professor of Native American Studies at the University of MontanaTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Prologue: Fanfare for the American Indian 1. Vine Deloria Jr. and the Discourse on Tribal Self-Determination: Independence beyond the Reservation System 2. Coyote Old Man Tells a Story: History, Plight, and Indian-White Relations 3. The Law of the Land: Tribes as Higher than States, Indians as Lower than Human 4. For the Good of the Indian: Termination Policy and the Pillaging of Indian Country 5. Not Your Minority: Tribalism during the Civil Rights Era 6. Here Come the Anthros!: A Tribal Critique of the Social Sciences 7. “Merciless Indian Savages”: Christianity, Churches, and the Soul of the Indian 8. The Scandal of Indian Affairs: Policy, Reservations, and the Future of Indian Freedom 9. Twentieth-Century Tribes: Nonlinear People in a Linear World 10. The Good Red Road Ahead: Self-Determination Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHere, Rüdiger Safranski sets his sights on the writer considered the Shakespeare of German literature. Goethe (1749–1832) awakened a burgeoning German nation and the European continent with his electrifying novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Safranski scoured Goethe’s oeuvre, relying on primary sources as well as his correspondence with contemporaries and their comments to one another, to produce an illuminating portrait of the avatar of the Romantic era. Set against the cultural and political turmoil of Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Goethe, who intersected with almost every great figure of his age, is thrillingly re-created here. As Safranski shows, Goethe’s greatest creation, even in comparison to his masterpiece Faust, was his own life.Trade Review"Safranski has written an outstanding biography, one that can be enjoyed by both scholars and general readers... he brilliantly captures Goethe’s perpetual incipience... Goethe has been lucky, on this occasion, with both his biographer and his translator." -- Literary Review"... fresh and authentic-feeling read." -- The Economist"In this expansive biography, Safranski, a philosopher and historian, mixes narrative and commentary with the great poet’s own words, from celebrated verse to obscure correspondence. Safranski’s strength lies in his ability to blend artistic analysis with swift, sharp renderings of various artists, thinkers, pietists, lovers, and plundering solders who shaped Goethe. His portrait of the prolific genius leaves the reader with lasting awe, even envy." -- The New Yorker"Enthralling…Rüdiger Safranski makes the reader fall madly in love with Goethe again." -- Ijoma Mangold - Die Zeit"Safranski is precise on the philosophical questions that dominated the life of a genius and his illustrious peers but the lessons for the many are outlined in a simple, engaging style... [his] achievement is to stir the most poignant of contrasting emotions." -- The Herald

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Book SynopsisMost people know that Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was a towering figure of American literature, a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner and author of novels including The Sun Also Rises and The Old Man and the Sea. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he was an ambulance driver in World War I and suffered 227 shrapnel wounds; that he wrote 47 different endings to A Farewell to Arms; that he hunted great white sharks and German U-boats with a machine gun; and that he survived two plane crashes in 48 hours. Biographic: Hemingway presents an instant impression of his life, work and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the writer behind the words.

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Book Synopsis''The book amounts to a comprehensive literary history of the time.'' David Sexton, Evening StandardVolume 5 of The Letters of T. S. Eliot finds the poet, between the ages of forty-two and forty-four, reckoning with the strict implications of his Christian faith for his life, his work, and his poetry.The letters between Eliot and his associates, family and friends - his correspondents range from the Archbishop of York and the American philosopher Paul Elmer More to the writers Virginia Woolf, Herbert Read and Ralph Hodgson - serve to illuminate the ways in which his Anglo-Catholic convictions could, at times, prove a self-chastising and even alienating force. ''Anyone who has been moving among intellectual circles and comes to the Church, may experience an odd and rather exhilarating feeling of isolation,'' he remarks. Notwithstanding, he becomes fully involved in doctrinal controversy: he espouses the Church as an arena of discipline a

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Book SynopsisT. S. Eliot's career as a successful stage dramatist gathers pace throughout the fascinating letters of this volume. Following his early experimentation with the dark comedy Sweeney Agonistes (1932), Eliot is invited to write the words of an ambitious scenario sketched out by the producer-director E. Martin Browne (who was to direct all of Eliot's plays) for a grand pageant called The Rock (1934). The ensuing applause leads to a commission from the Bishop of Chichester to write a play for the Canterbury Festival, resulting in the quasi-liturgical masterpiece of dramatic writing, Murder in the Cathedral (1935). A huge commercial success, it remains in repertoire after eighty years.Even while absorbed in time-consuming theatre work, Eliot remains untiring in promoting the writers on Faber's ever broadening lists George Barker, Marianne Moore and Louis MacNeice among them. In addition, Eliot works hard for the Christian Church he has espous

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Book SynopsisEverybody knows about Sherlock Holmes, the unique literary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has remained popular over the decades and is more appreciated than ever today. But what made this fictional character, dreamed up by a small-town English doctor back in the 1880s, into such a great success? This is the fascinating and exciting tale of the man and people who created the Holmes legend. The book was winner of the Best Non-fiction Award by The Swedish Crime Writers' Academy 2013 and shortlisted for The Great Non-Fiction Book Prize (Sweden's biggest non-fiction award) in Sweden 2013.Trade ReviewAll you ever wanted to know about Sherlock Holmes... A superb piece of detailed scholarship, clearly a labour of love for the author and, most importantly of all, is as readable as a good thriller' * Shots Magazine *If you love Sherlock Holmes, you'll love this book... The best account of Baker Street mania ever written... What Boström has accomplished supremely well is to relate, as his subtitle proclaims, 'the story of the men and women who created an icon.' In effect, he shows us how Sherlock Holmes enchanted the world' -- Michael Dirda, Washington PostA timely overview of the great detective's actual genesis and multiple transformation as a mass cultural icon... Riveting... Boström has expertly unearthed entertaining instances of the sleuth's diverse appearances in all media, throughout the world... [A] wonderfully entertaining history' -- Michael Saler, Wall Street JournalA comprehensive history of the iconic detective * Choice Magazine *A phenomenal achievement in Sherlockian scholarship. It is packed with detail, both the well known and the obscure, while still being eminently readable * Nudge Book *"Reads like fiction" is a cliché that's hard to avoid in describing this engrossing narrative full of quirky characters and twists and turns of plot. The 497 pages of text, followed by 100 pages of notes and index, fly by * The Sherlock Holmes Journal *Boström's richly detailed, yet lively work is essential reading for all true Holmesians * Guardian *A fascinating account of an astonishing literary phenomenon * Historical Novel Society *

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Book SynopsisJanet Morgan's definitive and authorised biography of Agatha Christie, with a new retrospective foreword by the author.Agatha Christie (18901976), the world's bestselling author, is a public institution. Her creations, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have become fiction's most legendary sleuths and her ingenuity has captured the imagination of generations of readers. But although she lived to a great age and was prolific, she remained elusively shy and determinedly private.Given sole access to family papers and other protected material, Janet Morgan's definitive biography unravels Agatha Christie's life, work and relationships, creating a revealing and faithfully honest portrait. The book has delighted readers of Christie's detective stories for more than 30 years with its clear view of her career and personality, and this edition includes a new foreword by the author reflecting on the longevity of Agatha Christie's extraordinary success and popularity.Trade Review‘A masterly an gripping biography … Janet Morgan’s study has merits far beyond merely keeping the faithful in touch with their vanished priestess.’ANTONIA FRASER, STANDARD ‘From it cool, beautifully paced and consistently entertaining narrative one gets a clear view of Christie’s career and personality.’ROBERT BARNARD, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘It lays, once and for all, the malicious rumours and vulgar gossip put about by other writers on the subject of Agatha Christie’s ten days’ disappearance in 1926, providing an authoritative, as well as authorised, explanation for the event.’T.J. BINYON, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS ‘Leaves not a stone unturned in the day to day doings of Mrs Christie; eighty-six years of bric-a-brac, people incidents houses, places, bills and interminable contract and copyright deals.’POLLY TOYNBEE, GUARDIAN

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Book SynopsisVolume One of the Letters of T. S. Eliot, edited by Valerie Eliot in 1988, covered the period from Eliot''s childhood in St Louis, Missouri, to the end of 1922, by which time he had settled in England, married and published The Waste Land. Since 1988, Valerie Eliot has continued to gather materials from collections, libraries and private sources in Britain and America, towards the preparation of subsequent volumes of the Letters edition. Among new letters to have come to light, a good many date from the years 1898-1922, which has necessitated a revised edition of Volume One, taking account of approximately two hundred newly discovered items of correspondence.The new letters fill crucial gaps in the record, notably enlarging our understanding of the genesis and publication of The Waste Land. Valuable, too, are letters from the earlier and less documented part of Eliot''s life, which have been supplemented by additional correspondenc

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Book SynopsisA graphic novel bringing to life Orwell's dramatic formative experiencesTrade Review'A masterpiece of comic book writing. Orwell, with his tongue firmly in his cheek, takes the reader through a hilarious journey of what it was like to be a small boy cast into the alien world of prep schools' -- Richard Blair, Patron of the Orwell Society'Sean Michael Wilson has done a splendid job of bringing Orwell's formative years at St Cyprian's visually to life' -- D.J. Taylor, author of 'On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography' (Abrams Press, 2019)‘Ground-breaking’ -- ‘Down the Tubes’'This book is amazing!' -- Ralph Fox, novelist

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Book SynopsisLa adaptación a novela gráfica de una de las obras en español más conmovedoras de los últimos tiempos, que inspiró la nueva película de Fernando Trueba.Un inolvidable homenaje de un hijo a su padre.El olvido que seremos, de Héctor Abad Faciolince, extraordinario canto al amor filial y clásico contemporáneo de la literatura en español, emprende un nuevo vuelo con esta adaptación al formato de novela gráfica a cargo del dibujante catalán Tyto Alba, cuyos excepcionales dibujos y acuarelas dan vida a unos personajes y una historia inolvidables, dotándolos de nuevos matices y significados, y añadiendo al libro una dimensión plástica que, respetando su esencia, lo transforma en una obra artística independiente.ENGLISH DESCRIPTIONThis is the graphic adaptation of one of the most moving novels in recent times. 

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Book SynopsisA genius of literary suspense, known to millions as the author of the “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of interviews, Shirley Jackson reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author, firmly placing Jackson within the American Gothic tradition.Trade Review"... lively and authoritative new biography." -- The Economist"This new biography... could not be more welcome or timely... Her [Ruth Franklin's] critical grasp of Jackson's oeuvre is superlative and you do not doubt a word she says: this is most definitely an exhaustive biography." -- Julie Myerson - The Spectator"Franklin has gained access to a trove of new material including a fascinating correspondence between Jackson and a housewife fan in the early 1960s. Our sense of there being "two Shirleys" is not encouraged by the author, who makes a convincing case for seeing the two personas instead as "profoundly interconnected"." -- The Times Literary Supplement"Franklin’s masterful biography, deeply researched and warmly sympathetic to its subject, paints a different picture, successfully marrying the various elements of Jackson’s personality – writer and homemaker, gifted literary author and popular mummy-blogger memoirist." -- Literary Review"... sympathetic and fair-minded biography…" -- The Guardian"Franklin... gives equal weight to Jackson’s life and work in this groundbreaking new biography." -- Jane Ciabattari, The 10 Best Books of 2016 - BBC Culture"...Ruth Franklin skilfully and with great verve and readability paints a portrait of a woman with many faces in this slick and stylish biography." -- The Mail on Sunday"Ruth Franklin’s Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life is a richly satisfying biography: capacious, incisive, and full of surprising insights into the legacy of this “Virginia Werewolf among the séance-fiction writers” (as a short-sighted mid-century writer once dubbed her)." -- Kate Bolick, Our Favourite Books of 2016 - The Irish Times"... enjoyable biography..." -- Dan Jones - The Times"In her biography...Ruth Franklin plays down the broomstick tag and skilfully unpicks the threads of Jackson's life and works." -- The Arts Desk"... gloriously comprehensive book." -- SciFi Now"... a wonderful, intriguing, warmhearted biography of the author of The Lottery. Franklin, like her subject, is just so darned readable..." -- The Bookseller"This is a skilled and deeply researched portrait of a curious woman and accomplished writer who retains the power to torment and unsettle readers..." -- The Times"Franklin’s biography looks at the inner darkness that fuelled a unique literary talent." -- The Telegraph"For many readers, Jackson is the best of all horror writers, a master of tension and unravelling sanity. In the biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin unravels some of the myths that surrounded the writer and also shows us a picture of a life that in some ways contains many of the things Jackson was writing about. Plagued with a fear of the outside world and an obsessive, panicked need to write, Jackson at times appears as one of her own characters – paranoid, compulsive, afraid." -- Daisy Johnson, Further Reading: Horror Books - The Guardian

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Book SynopsisWhen Nicholson Baker, one of the most linguistically talented writers in America, set out to write a book about John Updike, the result was no ordinary biography. Instead Baker's account of his relationship with his hero is a hilarious story of ambition, obsession, talent and neurosis, alternately self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing. More memoir than literary criticism, Baker is excruciatingly honest, and U & I reveals at least as much about Baker himself as it does about his idol. Written twenty years before Updike's death in 2009, U & I is a very smart and extremely funny exploration of the debts we owe our heroes.

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Book SynopsisAlice has known, loved, and lost many people throughout her life. Here she talks about her special people, her memory of what meant so much to her about them. She remembers her husband, father and mother, a beloved sister, her little brother Connie, and many others. She tells how she coped with the emptiness she felt when they died, of the seeming impossibility of moving on with life after such deeply felt loss, when time stood still. This book is a sharing – it lets the reader in on a story and celebration of life in its intimacy, its small, precious moments. When we experience grief, sharing in someone else’s story can help us more than anything, and in the hands of master storyteller Alice Taylor, we may find our own solace and the space to remember our own special people.Trade Review'uplifting' -- Arena, RTE Radio 1'anybody who has lost someone can find solace in this book' -- Arena, RTE Radio 1'as if she just writes down on the page what she was feeling, you don’t get any sense that there is any filter between you and the writer' -- Arena, RTE Radio 1'you would have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by it' -- Arena, RTE Radio 1'a warm personal story of life in rural Ireland' -- Arena, RTE Radio 1'And Time Stood Still warmed my heart and reminded me of the value of family, friendship and community' -- Irish Independent'in this book, Alice Taylor is singing my song' -- Irish Independent'every aspect of the book appealed' -- Irish Independent'I was enthralled' -- Irish Independent'wonderful' -- Irish Independent'a great read, beautifully put together' -- Western People'this book is a very practical one ... written from the heart by a woman who like most of us will have experienced grief in all its forms during life’s journey' -- Western People'peppered with wonderful stories' -- Western People'it’s written very simply, beautifully and movingly' -- Western People'beautifully illustrated and featuring the finest of prose and poetry' -- Southern Star

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Book SynopsisThis critical study covers the whole range of Dylan Thomas's writing, both poetry and prose, in an accessible appraisal of the work and achievement of a major and dynamic poet. It interrelates the man and his national-cultural background by defining in detail the Welshness of his poetic temperament and critical attitudes, as both man and poet. At the same time, it illustrates Thomas's wide knowledge of and impact on the long and varied tradition of poetry in English. In that connection, it delineates and delimits Thomas's relationship to surrealism, compares and contrasts his work with that of other poets of the 1930s and 1940s, and shows how its power survives his early death in 1953, in the decade of the 'Movement' poets and beyond. A major aspect of this book is the close textual analysis of the works quoted; it explores anew the recognition due to the man who wrote the work, and helps us to separate the intrinsic achievement of the work from the foisted perceptions of the 'legend'.Trade ReviewWalford Davies's sympathetic introduction to the character and writing of Dylan Thomas, one of the great twentieth-century poets, is illuminating for new or experienced readers. His appraisal and close readings are warmly personal, rooted in Welsh literary and social culture. - Prof. Barbara Hardy, Professor of English Literature Emeritus, University of London Walford Davies displays commendable but misplaced modesty in calling this extensively revised centenary edition of his celebrated study of Dylan Thomas an 'essay'. It is, rather, a sustained, even ecstatic meditation on the meaning of the life and the work of one of the great English language writers of the twentieth century. The book performs a miracle of compression in distilling a lifetime's learning and reflection into manageable space and offering elegant readings not only of Thomas's key writings in poetry, fiction and broadcast media but of his biographical and cultural contexts. The poet's debt to the Welsh-speaking, Non-Conformist milieu of his immediate ancestry is sensitively illuminated, and his place in the British poetry of his time and in the long history of verse in English from Chaucer to Heaney delineated with formidable skill and erudition. The volume is in the best sense a work of advocacy - and one as dapper, witty and unfanatical as it is impassioned. - Prof. Patrick Crotty, University of AberdeenTable of Contents1 'Begin at the beginning': introductory 2 'The sideboard fruit, the ferns': the poet in suburbia 3 'The loud hill of Wales': theWelshness of the work 4 'I'll put them all in a story by and by': aspects of the prose 5 'Now my saying shall be my undoing': the need to change 6 'Criss-cross rhythms': comparisons of earlier and later poems 77 7 'Ann's bard on a raised hearth': towards 'After the funeral (In Memory of Ann Jones)' 8 'Mostly bare I would lie down': a creative decade ends in war 9 'Arc-lamped thrown back upon the cutting flood'; 'This unbelievable lack of wires': wartime, film work, broadcasts 98 10 'We hid our fears in that murdering breath': the war elegies 11 'Parables of sun light': towards 'Poem in October', 'Fern Hill', 'Do not go gentle into that good night' and beyond

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Book SynopsisA harrowing yet uplifting account of Stalin's persecution of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1930s, and of one man - Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938), whose poetry, in spite of the unfolding tragedy of his life, preserved its unique creative gaiety. Nadezhda and Osip Mandelstam married in 1922. Nadezhda's memoir covers their last four years together. She begins in Moscow in May 1934 with the knock on the door at one o'clock in the morning, and her husband's arrest by the secret police for composing a satire of Stalin. She tells of his imprisonment, interrogation and exile to the Urals, where she accompanied him, and where he wrote his last great poems; his release and return to Moscow, only to be entrapped, rearrested and sentenced to hard labour in Siberia; of her own efforts to secure his release and to save his manuscripts (and to memorize all his poems in case she could not); of her discovery of the truth about his death in a transit camp near Vladivostock. For all its grim subject matter, it is a story of courage in adversity, and even humour finds a place. Nadezhda means 'hope' in Russian, and Hope against Hope is one of the greatest testaments to the value of literature and imaginative freedom ever written. It is also a love story that relates the daily struggle to keep both love and art alive in the most desperate circumstances. After years of circulating secretly in the Soviet Union it was published in the West in 1970, and has since achieved the status of a classic.Trade ReviewNothing one can say will either communicate or affect the genius of this book. To pass judgment on it is almost insolence - even judgment that is merely celebration and. homage -- George Steiner * The New Yorker *The witnesses to living on an edge under the tyrant are now many; none, not even Solzhenitsyn, has written better. -- Doris LessingHope against Hope puts [Mandelstam] at the centre of the liberal resistance under the Soviet Union. A masterpiece of prose as well as a model of bilgraphical narrative and social analysis. -- Clive JamesA Day of Judgment on earth for her age and its literature -- Joseph Brodsky

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Book SynopsisAn in-depth look into the life of Romantic essayist Charles Lamb and the legacy of his workTrade Review“Eric G. Wilson’s excellent Dream-Child, the first full-length biography since [E. V.] Lucas’s in 1905, marks an important staging post on [Lamb’s] road back to respectability.”—Clare Bucknell, New York Review of BooksNamed by the New Yorker as a Best Book of 2022“[An] electrifying portrait of Charles Lamb.”—New Yorker“A literary life in the fullest sense . . . this biography is alive all over . . . a huge and eloquent book.”—Australian Book Review“A narrative rich in complexity and nuance. . . . One of the strengths of Wilson’s work is that he makes Lamb unfamiliar, as he constantly recurs to the unstable explorations of authorship and identity that run through Lamb’s work. . . . [Wilson] is a superb reader of Lamb. . . . Dream-Child brings Lamb’s mind alive through his own words and is at its best when it cleaves closely to Lamb’s writing.”—Daisy Hay, Times Literary Supplement“[Wilson] pins Lamb down by becoming Lamb-like himself. His biography is important because it is written in this spirit of becoming; it goes therefore a little headlong, almost beyond the genre; and it urges us, in sum, to explore for ourselves the twilit streets of the London of Lamb’s spirit, bedimmed with the dark shapes of sanity, and the softer shadows of insanity that stalk his peculiar but enduring genius.”—Adam Neikirk, Review 19“Needle by needle, point by point, Wilson uncovers the social scaffolding of Lamb’s literary genius.”—Madoc Cairns, The Tablet“While this book is based on rigorous scholarship, it does not assume extensive prior knowledge. Instead, it serves as a good introduction for non-specialists and will hopefully encourage more to seek out Lamb’s works. . . . For all his subject’s evasiveness, Wilson helps us see behind the mask, capturing Lamb’s authentic and somewhat tortured character.”—Edward Weech, Literary Review“An engagingly detailed investigation of Charles Lamb’s remarkable life.”—Mark Jones, Albion Magazine “Wilson combines shrewd analysis with original insights and discoveries to provide a valuable addition to the existing corpus of Lamb criticism.”—Duncan Wu, Georgetown University“A highly evocative and deeply informed life—the first for a century—of one of the most complex and sympathetic literary personalities of his time and one of the greatest English essayists of any age.”—Seamus Perry, University of Oxford“We have waited a long time for the definitive full-scale scholarly biography of Charles Lamb—master of the witty and winding essay—but now it has arrived. Eric Wilson’s Dream-Child is not only a labor of love for a lovable figure, but also a vivid and skillful placing of Lamb in the context of Romanticism and early nineteenth-century London life.”—Sir Jonathan Bate, author of Radical Wordsworth

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Book SynopsisJames Joyce was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. This book explores his novels and short stories, and analyses the literary traditions and social factors influencing his distinctive complex style. Interweaving Joyce's life and history with his books, it also shows how Joyce celebrated his own experiences in Dublin.Table of Contents1: Story and sound 2: Dubliners 3: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 4: Ulysses 5: Finnegans Wake 6: Conclusion: Elite past or democratic future? Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisA terrifically engaging and original biography about one of England's greatest novelists, and the glamorous, eccentric, debauched and ultimately tragic family that provided him with the most significant friendships of his life and inspired his masterpiece, Brideshead Revisited'.Evelyn Waugh was already famous when Brideshead Revisited' was published in 1945. Written at the height of the war, the novel was, he admitted, of no immediate propaganda value'. Instead, it was the story of a household, a family and a journey of religious faith an elegy, in many ways, for a vanishing world and a testimony to a family he had fallen in love with a decade earlier.The Lygons of Madresfield were every bit as glamorous, eccentric and compelling as their counterparts in Brideshead Revisited'. In this engrossing biography, Paula Byrne takes an innovative approach to her subject, setting out to capture Waugh through those friendships that mattered most to him. Far from the snobbish misanthropist of popTrade Review'Byrne's gift as a writer is her ability to combine scholarship with turbo-driven narrative power. "Mad World" is vibrant, absorbing, stranger than fiction' Sunday Times 'Paula Byrne has written a highly accomplished book about the family that came to inspire the Flytes of Brideshead … a marvellous book, warm, witty, and enormously readable' Daily Telegraph 'Paula Byrne is the latest to explore the people and the story that inspired the book, and she does so with acuity and panache … a lively introduction to Waugh and to Brideshead' Observer ‘"Mad World" is full of fascinating anecdotes … Paula Byrne has produced a strong and romantic book that is at once a touching story of deep friendships, an astute piece of literary criticism and an important contribution to the canon of Waugh biography" Alexander Waugh, Literary Review '[A] gripping account of Evelyn Waugh's life' Philip Hoare ‘vibrant, absorbing and stranger than fiction’'Byrne's gift as a writer is her ability to combine scholarship with turbo-driven narrative power. "Mad World" is vibrant, absorbing, stranger than fiction' Sunday Times 'Paula Byrne has written a highly accomplished book about the family that came to inspire the Flytes of Brideshead … a marvellous book, warm, witty, and enormously readable' Daily Telegraph 'Paula Byrne is the latest to explore the people and the story that inspired the book, and she does so with acuity and panache … a lively introduction to Waugh and to Brideshead' Observer ‘"Mad World" is full of fascinating anecdotes … Paula Byrne has produced a strong and romantic book that is at once a touching story of deep friendships, an astute piece of literary criticism and an important contribution to the canon of Waugh biography" Alexander Waugh, Literary Review '[A] gripping account of Evelyn Waugh's life' Philip Hoare ‘vibrant, absorbing and stranger than fiction’The Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisA NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEARIn the vein of the Costa-winning Dadland, with the biographical elements of H is for Hawk, The Fragments of my Father is a powerful and poignant memoir about parents and children, freedom and responsibility, madness and creativity and what it means to be a carer.SHORTLISTED FOR THE BARBELLION PRIZEMy life had been suspended, as though I had inhaled and was still waiting to let out that gasp of breath. I set aside my dreams for a future time when life might be normal again. But that night, on my mother's birthday, as I sat and watched the sky turn from blue to black, I wondered for the first time if it ever would There were holes in Sam Mills's life when she was growing up times when her dad was just absent, for reasons she didn't understand. As she grew older, she began to make up stories about the periods when he wasn't around: that he'd been abducted, spirited away and held captive by a mysterious tribe who lived at the bottom of the garden. The truthTrade Review‘…a beautifully written memoir … a brave and original book filled with all kinds of glittering fragments — personal, literary and political … It is not a how-to manual, but a powerful exploration of loving and giving’ The Times ‘Stunning – brilliantly original, wise and profound. Mills writes with great philosophical depth and lyrical beauty about the quotidian asperities and painful tragicomedy of caring for a very ill parent, and the knowledge that they inhabit a surreal nightmare and the insane rules of this nightmare are that they are ravaged however much you love and protect them. Immensely moving, timely and also timeless’ Joanna Kavenna, author of Zed ‘Mills’s interweaving of stories, both historical and contemporary, displays the complexity of the bonds of familial and romantic love and how they can enrich one’s life and work if we allow them to … beautifully exposes the grains of an author’s life through the exploration of their place in a family. It show us there are many ways to move towards our unknowable futures via the stories of our past’ Spectator ‘… a poignant memoir about being a carer for a father who suffered from mental illness. Mills melds her own touching story with reflections on the literary figures – including Zelda Fitzgerald – who have been through similar struggles’ Independent ‘A beautiful book, written with rare honesty and emotional complexity, as well as a lively and amusing one. It will provide comfort to anyone who’s done the debilitating work of caring for a loved one, and insight to anyone who hasn’t’ Edmund Gordon, author of The Invention of Angela Carter ‘Mills takes you into the human heart at its most broken and its most hopeful in this brilliant book that will make you laugh and cry. It is a passionate cry for the millions of carers across the world, unpaid, unthanked, fighting every day out of love’ Kate Williams, author of Rival Queens

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking new look at American novelist Willa Cather''s creative process What would Willa Cather''s widely read and cherished novels have looked like if she had never met magazine editor and copywriter Edith Lewis? In this groundbreaking book on Cather''s relationship with her life partner, author Melissa J. Homestead counters the established portrayal of Cather as a solitary genius and reassesses the role that Lewis, who has so far been rendered largely invisible by scholars, played in shaping Cather''s work. Inviting Lewis to share the spotlight alongside this pivotal American writer, Homestead argues that Lewis was not just Cather''s companion but also her close literary collaborator and editor. Drawing on an array of previously unpublished sources, Homestead skillfully reconstructs Cather and Lewis''s life together, from their time in New York City to their travels in the American Southwest that formed the basis of the novels The Professor''s House and Death Comes for the Archbishop. After Cather''s death and in the midst of the Cold War panic over homosexuality, the story of her life with Edith Lewis could not be told, but by telling it now, Homestead offers a refreshing take on lesbian life in early twentieth-century America.Trade ReviewThe Only Wonderful Things opens up new ways for critics and biographers to read love, intimacy, and creative partnership in the queer archives. * Jada Ach, Arizona State University, Western American Literature *The Only Wonderful Things paves the way for further studies depicting the partnerships that sustain and shape the lives of writers—studies that, like this one, avoid prioritizing one partner over the other and instead position writers and their partners as coequals. * Kelsey Squire, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association *By demonstrating how some of Cather's most powerful, compressed sentences—the style for which she was celebrated—were in fact the result of revisions by Lewis, Homestead reassesses the nature of Cather's authorship, not diminishing individual creativity but illuminating the power of collaboration. In a literary world in which single authorship is most prized, in which the lone genius produces masterwork, Homestead demonstrates the efficacy of another form of artistry generated by creative and professional reciprocity. * Jennifer Haytock, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature *Homestead's greatest contribution is how intensely she examines the final years of Cather's life through Lewis....Homestead honors Lewis's pain with tenderness and reverence, prioritizing space within the narrative to allow the grieving Lewis to be seen fully and truthfully as the widow she was. * Charmion Gustke, Resources for American Literary Study *In Homestead's book, Cather's partner Edith Lewis emerges as a fascinating figure: intellectually sophisticated, professionally accomplished, and socially skilled...Described by a coworker as 'the best boss I ever had, the most intelligent, the most just, the kindest, and the bluntest,' Lewis brought these qualities to the editing of Cather's most celebrated novels. * Evan Carton, Provincetown Independent *This work is critical for scholars of Cather as well as those interested in the relationship between these two accomplished women. * Dr. Jillian L. Wenburg, Park University and Johnson County Community College, Nebraska History Magazine *This is a masterpiece of scholarly literary biography. * CHOICE *Homestead is the first to recover the central and influential role Lewis played in Cather's life and in her writing career ... this meticulously researched book is a very important addition to the literature on Cather. * C. Johanningsmeier, CHOICE *This book is a meticulously researched portrait of the life that Cather and Lewis shared ... The Only Wonderful Things gives us a fascinating portrait not only of a marriage but of American culture at a particular time and place. * Andrew Holleran, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide *At last! — an in-depth look at how Edith Lewis, the woman with whom Willa Cather lived in domestic partnership for almost forty years, was central to both her life and her literary career. By foregrounding the crucial role played by Lewis (remarkable in her own right), Homestead gives us valuable new insights into the way Cather, the artist, worked and the way Cather, the woman who loved women, lived her life. * Lillian Faderman, author of To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America — a History *Melissa Homestead has accomplished something beautiful and profound: she has recovered a decades-long relationship that has been ignored and minimized, introducing us to the complex life of Edith Lewis and reframing what we thought we knew about Willa Cather and her writing. The research is remarkable, the product of years of dogged work, and it is woven together to tell a story of love and creativity that we all need to know. I cherish the book and the vision it offers. * Andrew Jewell, co-editor of The Complete Letters of Willa Cather *This book is cause for celebration...For decades, the Cather industrial complex, skittish that any hint of sapphism might tarnish the reputation of Nebraska's first lady of letters, seemed eager to downplay the significance of the woman Cather chose as her literary executor and trustee...Melissa Homestead's long-awaited book is a truly wonderful thing for Cather studies. * Marilee Lindemann, Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Nebraska, New England, New York: Mapping the Foreground of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis's Creative Partnership Chapter 2: Office Bohemia: At Home in Greenwich Village, At Work in the Magazines Chapter 3: "Our Wonderful Adventures in the Southwest": Willa Cather and Edith Lewis's Southwestern Collaborations Chapter 4: "The Thing Not Named": Edith Lewis's Advertising Career and Willa Cather's Fiction and Celebrity in the 1920s Chapter 5: "Edith and I hope to get away to Grand Manan": Work, Play, and Community at Whale Cove Chapter 6: "We are the only wonderful things": The Late Lives and Deaths of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis Epilogue: The Edith Lewis Ghost Notes

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Book SynopsisCharles Dickens is credited with creating some of the world''s best-known fictional characters, and is widely regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian age. Even before reading the works of Dickens many people have met him already in some form or another. His characters have such vitality that they have leapt from his pages to enjoy flourishing lives of their own: The Artful Dodger, Miss Havisham, Scrooge, Fagin, Mr Micawber, and many many more. His portrait has been in our pockets, on our ten-pound notes; he is a national icon, indeed himself a generator of what Englishness signifies. In this Very Short Introduction Jenny Hartley explores the key themes running through Dickens''s corpus of works, and considers how they reflect his attitudes towards the harsh realities of nineteenth century society and its institutions, such as the workhouses and prisons. Running alonside this is Dickens''s relish of the carnivalesque; if there is a prison in almost every novel, there is also a theatre. She considers Dickens''s multiple lives and careers: as magazine editor for two thirds of his working life, as travel writer and journalist, and his work on behalf of social causes including ragged schools and fallen women. She also shows how his public readings enthralled the readers he wanted to reach but also helped to kill him. Finally, Hartley considers what we mean when we use the term ''Dickensian'' today, and how Dickens''s enduring legacy marks him out as as a novelist different in kind from others. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. This book was previously published in hardback as Charles Dickens: An IntroductionTrade ReviewA fair, entertaining and careful chronicler of Dickens's life, and an illuminating and inspiring reader of his works. For those unfamiliar with his writing, Charles Dickens: An introduction offers the best brief guide now available. For those of us who know it well, it encourages us to return to Dickens with renewed enthusiasm and an enlarged heart. * Times Literary Supplement *Jenny Hartley [...] has achieved a miracle of compression in this charmingly packaged book ... the success of this pocket guide, however, lies in her clever selection of themes and emphases, and in her ability to relate all things Dickensian to the way we live now. * Michael Wheeler, Church Times Summer Books Supplement *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Note on editions used 1: More 2: Public and private 3: Character and plot 4: City laureate 5: Radical Dickens 6: Dickensian Timeline Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisIn this second edition of William Wordsworth: A Life, Stephen Gill draws on knowledge of the poet''s creative practices and his reputation and influence in his life-time and beyond. Refusing to treat the poet''s later years as of little interest, this biography presents a narrative of the whole of Wordsworth''s long life--1770 to 1850--tracing the development from the adventurous youth who alone of the great Romantic poets saw life in revolutionary France to the old man who became Queen Victoria''s Poet Laureate. The various phases of Wordsworth''s life are explored with a not uncritical sympathy; the narrative brings out the courage he and his wife and family were called upon to show as they crafted the life they wanted to lead. While the emphasis is on Wordsworth the writer, the personal relationships that nourished his creativity are fully treated, as are the historical circumstances that affected the production of his poetry. Wordsworth, it is widely believed, valued poetic spontaneity. He did, but he also took pains over every detail of the process of publication. The foundation of this second edition of the biography remains, as it was of the first, a conviction that Wordsworth''s poetry, which has given pleasure and comfort to generations of readers in the past, will continue to do so in the years to come.Trade ReviewThose who do not own the first edition should acquire this one...Essential. * T. Ware, Queen's University at Kingston, CHOICE *One of the many enjoyments of Stephen Gill's William Wordsworth: A Life is the quiet pride it communicates in a job well done. Wordsworth emerges from this comprehensive and absorbing study as a man whose sense of purpose and duty steadily grew from youth to old age. * Freya Johnston, The Guardian *[William Wordsworth: A Life] is judicious, fair-minded, panoptic. * Brad Leithauser, The Wall Street Journal *The richly revised second edition of Gill's biography (the first appeared in 1990), refuses the usual trajectory and instead celebrates 'a multifaceted, highly creative life of eighty years'. * Thomas Keymer, London Review of Books *A magnificent second edition, which displays the same qualities of quiet authority, tact and resistance to speculation, and thus merits consideration as a work in its own right. * Pamela Clemit, Times Literary Supplement *Reading Gill's work is a reminder of the pleasures and advantages of whole life biography. * Kathryn Hughes, New York Review of Books *Gill gives us the Wordsworth who bore life's tribulations as a philosopher, the Wordsworth renowned as a poet, but also the deeply human portrait of Wordsworth the man. * Chris Townsend, The Wordsworth Trust *Gill is the leading authority on the poet and writes in great detail about his life and work; an essential book for all students. * Robert Tanitch, The Mature Times *An essential companion to students of Wordsworth with much to offer the general reader. * Will Smith, Cumbria Life *This biography not only presents Wordsworth in the round, but also grants us a peep into his very soul. * Steve Craggs, Northern Echo *Stephen Gill's masterly and immensely readable "William Wordsworth: A Life". * Michael Dirda, The Washington Post *Review from previous edition The most scholarly and up-to-date book on Wordsworth... His judgement and interests are eminently sensible and show a full picture of Wordsworth. * Nikolai Tolstoy, Daily Mail *Impressive new Clarendon biography ...William Wordsworth: A Life is every inch the new definitive work. Gill has taken full account of Wordsworth studies in the past 30 years, blended the new materials with the old, and come out with a book that is scholarly, readable, likely to last. * Jonathan Wordsworth, Sunday Times *excellent biography of Wordsworth ... Gill is master of the very extensive primary and secondary sources, and a particular expert on the manuscripts, which the poet subjected to constant revision. * William Scammell, The Listener *not least among the virtues of this excellent biography is the way in which Stephen Gill balances the inner against the external man ... This is the kind of biography which any writer would be delighted to inspire, let alone deserve ... it is a measure of the significance of this biography that its seriousness matches that of Wordsworth itself. * Peter Ackroyd, The Times *all stolid good sense * Blake Morrison, The Bookseller *thorough, scholarly biography * Anthony Powell, Weekend Telegraph *Stephen Gill's new biography ... is enormously well-informed and avoids extravagant speculation, ... It provides an entertaining, shrewd, and manageably-sized narrative of Wordsworth's life * Peter Swaab, Sunday Telegraph *Stephen Gill's admirable biography ... it succeeds, where such biographies often fail, in transforming the life into the work by actively exploring, not avoiding, the complex problems that Wordsworth's self-account presents to his biographer. * London Review of Books *lively, painstaking book * Archie Hind, Glasgow Herald *Gill has already proved himself as an editor of Wordsworth's manuscripts and now turns that research to elegant profit. * Anthony Lane, Independent *It is difficult to see how a biography of Wordsworth could be enthralling, but Stephen Gill has made his so. This densely particularised and humane biography returns us anew to the poet's questions with an inwardness and sympathy few previous writers have displayed. * Isobel Armstrong, Southampton University, TES *the first comprehensive biography of Wordsworth since Mary Moorman's 30 years ago. * Blake Morrison, Observer *not many biographies are so admirably devoid of pretentiousness, silliness, and banality. * Chloe Chard, Weekend Financial Times *in Stephen Gill's monumental work, exacting, controlled, measured and profound, we have a moving portrait of a great poet the confirming of whose reputation has been substantially advanced by Gill's scholarship and judgment. * Bruce Arnold, Irish Independent *Gill is an immensely learned, scrupulous and judicious guide ... It is a mark of a good biography that the peripheral figures - the friends and acquaintances - are brought to life by a few swift, bold strokes ... A new biography of Wordsworth was certainly needed, and this one will be an indispensable companion for Lake Poet enthusiasts. Its insights are astute and its choice of quotation excellent; it could not have condensed more information into a single volume, yet it never becomes a mere procession of facts ... this volume is fluent and comprehensive. * Jonathan Bate, Country Life *a large, very readable study by Oxford scholar Stephen Gill who makes use of much fresh material. * Michael Field, The Star *thorough and scholarly biography ... Many books have been on Wordsworth, but this one takes a fresh look at contemporary records and the mass of material which has been unearthed since the last serious biography, a quarter-of-a-century ago. * John Hurst, Cumberland & Westmorland Herald *What Gill has done, very well, is to match the poetry to the poet's development. Gill, with his illuminating extracts, saves us from our own ignorance. * Anthony Hern, London Evening Standard *this biography clears new and central ground for future academic revaluations of the poet and his work ... It renders Wordsworth newly accessible and calls attention to his reciprocal relation to, and profound effects on, the national life. * New York Times Book Review *a lovingly told story * Christopher Hall, The Countryman *a thorough and detailed study of Wordsworth's life in relation to the poetry ... Gill is a thoughtful critic as well as a careful biographer ... sympathetic study. * J. B. Pick, The Scotsman *When dealing with politics or family matters Gill can be very shrewd, and especially so in his subtle account of the growing strains between Wordsworth and Coleridge after 1800. And on textual matters Gill writes with an authority well beyond that of any previous biographer. Many of his poetry discussions are first rate, sensitive and illuminating. * Norman Fruman, Times Literary Supplement *an eminently accessible as well as definitive study of the poet's life. * Sunday Times *not a general biography of the Great Lakes poet, nor is it merely a critique of his work ... It is an authoritative and readable study ... of Wordsworth's writing in an effort to lay bare the poet's life as a writer of poetry "full of human understanding and experience." ... a fascinating and enlightening study ... few will deny it's value in bringing the man and his work into fresh perspective. * Evelyn Holtzhausen, Cape Times *This isn't a critical book ... and discussion of the poetry is carefully fused with Wordsworth's self-discussion. ... this biography is good value ... Always well-written, it wears its substantial scholarship lightly * Simon Petch, Sydney Morning Herald *Stephen Gill ... has written what must now be the definitive biography ... a multitudinous life about which, even after reading this thorough and admirable biography we still wish we knew more. * David Parkin, Yorkshire Post *a model literary biography * Bernard Bergonzi, The Tablet *compendious new biography of William Wordsworth ... solidly constructed * Chicago Tribune *the biography is both scholarly and readable ... If William Wordsworth: A Life brings new readers to the poems or old readers back it will have succeeded admirably in its aim. * Peter Dyson, University of Toronto, The Globe and Mail *Gill has performed a remarkable act of revisionary scholarship by shifting the bulk of the story to the years at Rydal Mount ... this is a distinguished work of literary biography ... The biographer's wide-ranging knowledge of the period adds immensely to the success of this study. It will be many years before another biography of Wordsworth is required. * Jay Parini, USA Today *He offers a more factually meticulous version of the poet's early years to stand beside the mythopoeic self-presentation of the poetry. He understands the importance of Wordsworth's inner life. Gill's biography quietly but memorably reveals the drama of Wordsworth's life. * Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor *fine new biography ... Mr Gill's biography is up-to-date in its scholarship ... It neither sentimentalizes nor oversimplifies. * Richard Locke, Columbia University, Wall Street Journal *all stolid good sense * John Linklater, The Bookseller *this biography contains much to interest scholars * Henry Bartlett, The Courier-Mail *it is robust and intelligent on his marvellous body of poetry * Observer *Gill's narrative is well-paced and well-written. Gill's account is comprehensive and engaging, and skilful in its corporation of biographical detail. The Wordsworth specialist, as well as the general reader, will come away from it refreshed and inspired. * Charles Rzepka, Boston University, Essays in Criticism *eloquent and straight-forward retelling of Wordsworth's life * J.D. Gutteridge, Notes and Queries *triumphantly reconciles a vast amount of material to produce a life of Wordsworth that is sensitive to modern scholarship and faithful to the age in which the poet himself lived ... Stephen Gill has written a biography of Wordsworth for our times, and it will remain the standard life of the poet for many years to come. * Nicholas Roe, University of St Andrews, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLI, No. 164, Nov '90 *An assured blend of old and recently-researched material which combines fluently into a vibrant study of the poet. Mr Gill avoids wild speculation and brings us the essence of the man thankfully devoid of spurious conjecture. * Tony Firth, Yorkshire Post *a unique look at this Romantic poet * Windsor Star *Table of ContentsPart I: BEGININGS 1: 1770-1787 2: 1787-1792 3: 1793-1795 4: 1795-1797 5: 1797-1798 6: 1798-1799 Part II: MIDDLE YEARS 7: 1800-1802 8: 1803-1805 9: 1806-1810 10: 1810-1815 11: 1816-1820 Part III: LATER YEARS 12: 1820-1822 13: 1822-1832 14: 1833-1839 15: 1840-1850

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Fyodor Dostoevsky became the writer best known for his treatment of the big questions of ethics, religion, and philosophy. In this Very Short Introduction, Deborah Martinsen explores Dostoevsky''s tumultuous life story: his political imprisonment and narrow escape from execution, his Siberian exile, his gambling addiction, his romantic marriage, and his literary success. Martinsen also delves into his major works - Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, The Brothers Karamazov, The Diary of a Writer, and more. Each chapter analyzes a key theme or aspect of Dostoevsky''s writing that showcases his profound insights into human nature and society: doubling, freedom, shame, social justice, scandal, aesthetics, ethics, faith, and the eternal questions. Martinsen also demonstrates how Dostoevsky''s novels remain relevant today as they address pressing questions about freedom, morality, and meaning in a c

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Book SynopsisA biography of the novel that tells us how this poor, sickly young writer from Algeria happened to write perhaps the century's most ubiquitous novel.Trade Review"Thoroughly enjoyable, and filled with fascinating thoughts and insights. A wonderfully elegant investigative journey, leading us from the first spark to the afterlife of Camus's novel."--Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe "Alice Kaplan has written a gripping biography--not of a modern French writer, as she did in The Collaborator and The Interpreter, but of a modern French novel. With her trademark combination of archival research, personal investigation, and interpretive skill, she tells the story of Camus's The Stranger from its first stirrings in the mind of its young, unknown author through its publication in wartime France and its role in transforming Camus into an international literary star, to its postwar fame and enduring life and afterlife. Looking for "The Stranger," which itself often reads like a novel, will thrill anyone who has read Camus's masterpiece and entice others to do so." --Susan Rubin Suleiman, author of The Nemirovsky Question "Alice Kaplan has written the life story of one of the essential and enduring books of the twentieth century, and with it she gives us a page-turner of scholarship, a work of narrative power and historical resonance, right up to the present moment. The Stranger has found its greatest friend."--Patricia Hampl, author of I Could Tell You Stories "With the same seriousness and wit that we find in all her books, Alice Kaplan has written the most unexpected biography possible: the one of a novel in the making. Looking for "The Stranger" is an engaging investigation as well as an enthralling essay about a cornerstone of modern literature, one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century, and the best selling mass market paperback in French publishing history. The role of journalism, the influence of American literature, the philosophical debate about the absurd, the colonial context: Alice Kaplan is giving all the elements that make up Albert Camus's masterpiece and that are essential to the reader's deep understanding of an era. It is an immense pleasure to follow her as she unravels masterfully all the threads of the tapestry, until the final revelation.: --Laure Murat, author of The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon "It might seem that there's nothing left to say about Albert Camus's The Stranger its bones have been scavenged by foes and fans alike, Camus's story of Meursault recently the subject of a successful novel and movie. But scholar Alice Kaplan's Looking for The Stranger reveals a seductively manipulated story, every scintilla of its plot derived from real life or from prior literature: James Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, Camus claimed, was the strongest influence on his novel, which is based on the absurd, not on existentialism after all. Like most fiction, The Stranger was built upon narrative truths, and, for the first time, the identity of the manshot by Meursault is revealed, no longer condemned to be the nameless Arab. Graceful yet demanding, Looking for "The Stranger" shows how thoroughly Camus made art out of his life."--Laura Claridge, author of The Lady with the Borzoi "An absorbing account of the making of The Stranger. For American readers, few French novels are better known, and few scholars are better qualified than Kaplan to reintroduce us to it. The author of several fine biographies of French and American writers, as well as the ravishing memoir French Lessons, Kaplan here sets herself the task of writing a biography of a book. . . . Kaplan tells this story with great verve and insight, all the while preserving the mystery of its creation and elusiveness of its meaning. . . . While some might question Kaplan's claim that the novel 'changed the course of modern literature' few will ever question either the work's perennial appeal or the brilliance with which Kaplan has told its story."--Robert Zaretsky "Los Angeles Review of Books " "To this new project, Kaplan brings equally honed skills as a historian, literary critic, and biographer. . . . In an epilogue, Ms. Kaplan goes a step further and looks for the identity of the Arab involved in the real-life altercation that inspired the novel's pivotal scene. What she learns about him is fascinating, and how she writes about parallels between him and Camus is a lovely example of her own imaginative powers and stylish prose. . . . Reading The Stranger is a bracing but somewhat bloodless experience. Ms. Kaplan has hung warm flesh on its steely bones."--John Williams "New York Times "

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Book SynopsisThe most authoritative account of a pivotal event in legal and cultural history: the trials of Oscar Wilde on charges of “gross indecency”Trade Review“[A] rich, compellingly told, meticulously researched and generously illustrated volume.”—Simon J. James, Review of English Studies“Bristow’s Oscar Wilde on Trial is a thorough, rewarding, and deeply compassionate study of a dark and significant chapter in Victorian queer history.”—Ethan Evans, British Association of Victorian Studies Newsletter“Oscar Wilde on Trial represents a major contribution to Wilde studies. Joseph Bristow has amassed and synthesized an extraordinary amount of material and presented it lucidly and cogently.”—Simon Stern, coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities“There is no doubt that Oscar Wilde on Trial will be the most thorough, the most comprehensive, and the most revealing account of the trials that has yet appeared.”—John Stokes, author of Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles, and Imitations

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Book SynopsisThe untold story of the greatest library of the Renaissance and its creator Hernando ColónTrade Review“This book is a triumph of interdisciplinary work, one that does justice to the multiplicity of interests and concerns that animated Colón and his grand venture…We can be thankful that we have such expert guides as Pérez Fernández and Wilson-Lee to reconstruct what we have lost and to open up the wondrous world of Hernando Colón.”—Arthur der Weduwen, Library & Information History“A terrific book. The product of a long‑standing co‑operation between these two accomplished authors, combining meticulous research with deep and original thought.”—Andrew Pettegree, University of St. Andrews“Detective story, biography, and curiosity, this ground‑breaking book shows how the library of the entrepreneur and theorist of knowledge, Hernando Colón, was central to the Renaissance aspiration to comprehensive understanding.”—Andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex“This deeply researched study reconstructs Hernando Colón’s remarkable library—its manuscript and printed books, maps, ephemera, mercantile records, and epitomes, its millenarian imperial motives, and innovative methods of information management.”—Ann Blair, Harvard University“This interdisciplinary study shines new light on the transnational formation of the Biblioteca Hernandina as well as on early modern globalization, history of the book, library science, and transcultural relations.”—Anne J. Cruz, University of Miami“This fascinating, evocative reconstruction of Hernando Colón's world-encompassing library by Pérez Fernández and Wilson-Lee conjures vividly, for today´s readers, one of the early modern era's most exciting spaces.”—Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame

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Book SynopsisAn annotated selection of the letters of the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay, from childhood through the last year of her lifeTrade Review“Into the World’s Great Heart is a fascinating, meticulously documented, behind-the-scenes look at a writer’s informal use of words in letters as Millay describes her passions, obsessions, and wide-ranging intellectual interests.”—Laurie Lisle, author of Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe“No one writes like Millay. Her letters bring her unique wit and intelligence vividly to life. This invaluable new edition will make you fall in love with Millay all over again.”—Melissa Girard, Loyola University Maryland“The ‘tendrils of faith’ which Millay described as the natural force driving her poetry became live wires connecting her to a wide audience of admirers. In this new, masterfully edited collection, her letters have the same gripping effect on her readers.”—Thomas E. Hill, Vassar College“What a joy to enter into the ‘great heart’ of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s correspondence! Editor Timothy F. Jackson skillfully highlights the versatile voice of this famous poet and iconic modern woman.”—Catherine Keyser, author of Playing Smart: New York Women Writers and Modern Magazine Culture“Edna St. Vincent Millay possessed so much life and daring and wit that she leaps from the page in these letters. What a pleasure to share her company.”—Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own

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Book SynopsisPrize-winning biographer Leo Damrosch tells the story of “the Club,” a group of extraordinary writers, artists, and thinkers who gathered weekly at a London tavernTrade Review“A magnificently entertaining book.”—Michael Dirda, Washington Post“Impeccable scholarship at the service of absolute lucidity. . . . Learned, penetrating, a pleasure to read. . . . [A] splendid book.”—Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal“Damrosch brilliantly brings together the members’ voices. . . . As this stellar book moves from one Club member to another, it comes together as an ambitious venture homing in on the nature of creative stimulus. . . . The best historians . . . invite readers to accompany them ‘behind the scenes.’ Damrosch does precisely that here, . . . [in] a book that sustains a shared conversation, a terrific feat in keeping with that of the Club itself.”—Lyndall Gordon, New York Times Book Review“Beginning in 1764, some of Britain’s future leading lights (including Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke and Edward Gibbon) met every Friday night to talk and drink. Damrosch’s magnificent history revives the Club’s creative ferment.”—New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice“Engaging and illuminating . . . Damrosch is a crisp guide . . . He wears his learning lightly, and his sympathetic enjoyment is infectious. . . . In The Club, as the actors appear one by one, surrounding Johnson and Boswell on Damrosch’s stage, we are transported back to a world of conversations, arguments, ideas, and writings. And in this vibrantly realized milieu, words rarely fail.”—Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books “A very readable introduction” – Emily Jones, Financial TimesA New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2019A Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of 2019A Kirkus Reviews’ Best Book of 2019“Damrosch has a keen eye for the quirks of character and provides an engaging, informative introduction”—Henry Hitchings, The Times“Damrosch's strength lies in the retelling of colourful anecdotes”—Jane Darcy, Times Literary Supplement“[A] detailed, gripping study of genius and geniality in 18th century London”—Alex Colville, Spectator“Lively and perceptive”—Jeffrey Meyers, Times Higher Education“This is a genial book”—Clive Aslet, Country Life“[A] generously illustrated group biography”—Oldie“This book [. . .] does combine several strands of scholarship and literary investigation to create an entertaining overview of the world in which they, and others, interacted. Damrosch brings the different characters to life, revealing them as fallible but likeable human beings, rather than just revered cultural figures. More importantly, we get a glimpse of the enjoyment that they felt in one another’s company”—Paul Flux, AlbionShortlisted for the 2020 Christian Gauss Book Award, sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa SocietyFinalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe award for non-fiction category, sponsored by The Boston Authors ClubWinner in the PROSE Awards Biography and Autobiography category, sponsored by the Association of American Publishers Finalist in the L.A. Times Book Prize, biography category, sponsored by the L.A.Times.“The Club is a stimulating and delightful work. The portraits of Boswell, Gibbon, and Burke are extraordinary condensations granting us accurate visions of complex personalities. Leo Damrosch has addressed himself to common readers with authentic gusto.”—Harold Bloom“Brilliant, lucid, and enjoyable . . . With perfectly chosen anecdotes, The Club vividly evokes the period.”—Norma Clarke, author of Dr Johnson's Women“Leo Damrosch’s book is an extraordinary achievement. A lively and engaging account of the coming together of a group of famously gifted individuals—the Club, a virtual microcosm of the vibrant world of mid-to-late eighteenth-century London.”—William C. Dowling, Rutgers University

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