Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisPaul Menzer is Dean of Visual and Performing Arts at Mary Baldwin University, where he is a professor and the director of the Shakespeare and Performance graduate program. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q's, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).Trade ReviewWritten with verve, this biography is as breezy as it is illuminating. * Laurie Maguire, Fellow, Magdalen College, and Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford, UK *As wry and witty as it is thorough and thoughtful, Menzer’s eminently readable study is the most fun you will ever have with a biography of Shakespeare. * Andrew Hartley, Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Preface: The Complete Life of William Shakespeare Chapter 1. Shakespeare’s Dead Chapter 2. Earth Unto Earth Chapter 3. Shakespeare at School Chapter 4. Anne Hathaway, aka Chapter 5. The Lost Years Chapter 6. Stratford in the Rear View Chapter 7. Enter London Chapter 8. Shakespeare, playwright Chapter 9. Shakespeare, poet Chapter 10. Shakespeare’s Company Chapter 11. William Shakespeare, gent. Chapter 12. Shakespeare at Court Chapter 13. Shakespeare’s Globe? Chapter 14. Shakespeare’s Properties Chapter 15. The King’s Man Chapter 16. The Plague Years Chapter 17. Shakespeare’s Daughters Chapter 18. The Returning Point Chapter 19. Shakespeare’s Head Epilogue: Yellow Leaves Notes Index

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Book SynopsisT. E. Franklinos is Fellow of Wolfson College and Lecturer in Classics at Oriel College at the University of Oxford, UK. He has principally published on Latin authors and their transmission, in particular on the works of the Roman elegists, on Vergilian pseudepigrapha and on medieval Latin texts.Rino Modonutti is Associate Professor of Medieval Latin Literature and Medieval and Humanistic Philology at the University of Padova, Italy. He has published on medieval historiography and encyclopedism, and on the tradition and reception of Classical Latin literature in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

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Book SynopsisA paperback reissue of a critically acclaimed biography which shows Shakespeare as a man among men and a writer among writers. Duncan Jones takes us through the complexities of life in late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England in a compelling and well-told story.Trade Review'[A] deeply considered and stimulating book, informed throughout by the author's intimate knowledge of the literature and society of Shakespeare's age... These scenes from Shakespeare's life...offer refreshing alternative points of view that no future biographers will be able to ignore Stanley Wells, TLS 'It is unquestionably the best Shakespearean biography of the new century' Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph '...a model of lucid scholarship which tries neither to beatify nor vilify its subject, but to present [Shakespeare] as a living figure in the heat and the dust of the passing world' The Times 'Katherine Duncan-Jones's constantly illuminating and hugely enjoyable biography restores the author and his plays to bubbly life...Duncan-Jones triumphantly constructs an upsetting trajectory from playful youth to rancorous skinflint, through which art matures even as character hardens' The Observer 'Engrossing...Her account of Shakespeare's hypothetical entry into the theatrical profession is a tour de force of biographical reconstruction...Katherine Duncan-Jones shines light into dark corners and brings skeletons out of the closet. Her courageous biography is partisan, idiosyncratic, and unforgettable. Anyone seriously interested in Shakespeare should read it.' Shakespeare Quarterly 'A brilliant book...Fresh and original.' Literary Review

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Book SynopsisThe eloquent and intimate biography of one of the most significant figures of the last century. Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and won the Nobel Prize for literature. Born into the high world of the Whig aristocracy, among people for whom Waterloo was still almost a personal memory, Russell lived to inspire the campaign against nuclear warfare. He was imprisoned in 1918 for his Pacifism. Ronald Clark, with access to a mass of material, provides a fascinating and graphic portrait of the man. There is virtually no aspect of Russell's long life to which something new - and often unexpected - is not added by this remarkable and incisive book.

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Table of ContentsPrefatory Note Introduction 1 Father and Son 2 Aix-en-province 3 Lost Illusions 4 Cezanne and Gabrielle 5 The Publishing Business 6 The Art Critic 7 Zola and Manet 8 Beginnings and Endings 9 From the Commune to L'Assommoir 10 Friends and Disciples 11 The Lure of the Stage 12 Portrait of the Man 13 Portrait of the Writer 14 Zola and the Impressionists 15 Jeanne 16 A Double Life 17 London, Lourdes and Rome 18 Ends and Means: The Dreyfus Affair 19 Zola on Trial 20 The English Scene 21 A New Century Notes

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Book SynopsisLearn about the greatest works of literature, and the lives of those who wrote them in The Literature Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Literature in this overview guide to the subject, great for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Literature Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Literature, with:- More than 100 ground-breaking ideas on major literary works- Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understandingThe Literature BoTrade Review"[The Big Ideas Simply Explained books] are beautifully illustrated with shadow-like cartoons that break down even the most difficult concepts so they are easier to grasp. These step-by-step diagrams are an incredibly clever learning device to include, especially for visual learners." — Examiner.com"Clever and engaging" — Booklist"[An] attractive presentation…" — Booklist"[T]his book takes you through a whirlwind tour of literature through the ages…quick 'n' dirty summaries of the books you maybe never got around to reading." — RedEye, a Chicago Tribune Publication"The content and tone seem well suited as preparatory handouts to high school English classes." — Library Journal"The Literature Book tells the stories behind the stories in an engaging manner that will entice even the reluctant reader." — Voice of Youth Advocates

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Book Synopsis[Manguso] has written the memoir we didn't realize we needed. The New YorkerIn Ongoingness, Sarah Manguso continues to define the contours of the contemporary essay. In it, she confronts a meticulous diary that she has kept for twenty-five years. I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened, she explains. But this simple statement belies a terror that she might forget something, that she might miss something important. Maintaining that diary, now eight hundred thousand words, had become, until recently, a kind of spiritual practice.Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two Copernican events generated an amnesia that put her into a different relationship with the need to document herself amid ongoing time.Ongoingness is a spare, meditative work that stands in stark contrast to the volubility of the diaryit is a haunting account of mortality and impermanence, of how we struggle to find clarity in the chaos of time that rushes around and over and through us.Bold, elegant, and honest . . . Ongoingness reads variously as an addict's testimony, a confession, a celebration, an elegy. The Paris ReviewManguso captures the central challenge of memory, of attentiveness to life . . . A spectacularly and unsummarizably rewarding read. Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

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Book SynopsisAfter twenty-six-year-old author Breece D'J Pancake took his own life in April 1979, the West Virginian's posthumously published short-story collection made a considerable impact on the world of letters. In A Room Forever, Thomas E. Douglass offers a detailed portrait of Pancake's short life, examining the varied circumstances and emotional forces that led to the writer's suicide and exploring Pancake's influence on contemporary fiction generally and Appalachian writing in particular. Douglass has recreated the key events of the young artist's life: his West Virginia childhood, his romantic losses, his education as a writer at the University of Virginia, and the acceptance of his work by the East Coast literary establishment. Through analysis of the story fragments reproduced in this volume, including "The Conqueror" and "Shouting Victory, " Douglass illustrates the recurring themes - such as fear of failure and the inability to escape disaster - that Pancake expressed so eloquently in his work, and he shows their origins in the writer's own personal history. Douglass examines the degree to which Pancake drew on his memories of life in Appalachia and discusses Pancake's influence on other Appalachian writers such as Pinckney Benedict.

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