Biography: writers Books

Book Synopsis'For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door And Leerie stops to light it, as he lights so many more...' The picture of a small boy peering from a window at dusk to watch the lamplighter in the street is one of the enduring images of 19th-century Edinburgh, and the child probably the most famous ever brought up there. Robert Louis Stevenson loved to conjure up a dashing, romantic lineage for himself, dreaming that he was descended from the colourful outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor. The reality was less flamboyant but no less remarkable and he would learn that the street lamps of Edinburgh owed their brilliance to the scientific work of his own great-grandfather. This welcome addition to the Robert Louis Stevenson canon gives a concise account of his life - his family background, childhood and adolescence in a Calvinist, hard-working household in Scotland, his travels in three continents and his final years in the South Seas.It examines his relationships with his parents and his nurse, with English and American friends, particularly the family into which he married, and with the Samoan islanders among whom he died at the age of 44. Stevenson's childhood experiences and Scottish identity fed his fertile imagination wherever he found himself. His legacy includes travel writing, essays and poetry, and novels such as "Treasure Island", "Kidnapped", "The Master of Ballantrae", "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "St Ives" and "Weir of Hermiston", still read and enjoyed more than one hundred years after his death. "Robert Louis Stevenson: The Travelling Mind" is an insightful introduction to the life and work of one of the world's best-loved writers.Trade Review' ... it seems we still have to remind ourselves how wonderful a writer Stevenson was. Dunlop's new biography does the honours with appealing brevity and elegance.' The Scotsman A concise, well-written chronological narrative of Stevenson's life, which, though it makes no new contribution to our knowledge, tells the story well and offers convincing interpretations of key moments (quarrels with father and Henley, family relations on Samoa.' ... Professor Richard Drury, RLS website ' ... a stimulating text, particularly useful for young scholars and those interested in learning more about Stevenson. Dunlop's enthusiasm about her subject will certainly encourage readers to revisit Stevenson's writings and to investigate further into his life.' Journal of Stevenson StudiesTable of ContentsThe Engineer's ChildThe Cummy YearsThe Education of a WriterWork ExperienceIn Two WorldsNorth and SouthThe Pains of LoveR.L. Stevenson, AdvocateBeside the StoveThe Travelling MindFamiliesSkerryvoreBreaking CirclesIn the South SeasA Laird in SamoaThe Myth of Robert Louis StevensonPostscriptSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisDavid Jones's In Parenthesis is the greatest poem to emerge from the First World War, and indeed one of the greatest to emerge from any war. It could have been written only by someone who had not only experienced the war in all its horror, but who was himself soaked in both poetry and history and for whom that war deepened his understanding of both. Thomas Dilworth's biography takes us through the intellectual development of a patriotic young Welshman from the London lower- middle classes who joined up at the beginning of the war, served throughout on the Western Front, and learned, through living through the sodden misery of the winter of 1915-16 and the nightmares both of the Somme and then of Passchendaele, that war could be not only terrible but also, through the comradeship it brought with it, deeply fulfilling. This was this strange paradox that lies at the heart of In Parenthesis. Anyone who seeks to understand that poem should first read this book. But so should anyone who seeks to understand how David Jones's generation endured the Great War. Professor Sir Michael Howard, OM MC Accompanying the biography are photographs of Jones and his wartime sketches and drawings, many previously unpublished. The quickly drawn sketches of infantrymen, landscapes, ruined villages and still-lifes bring the story to life as works of documentary realism.Trade ReviewPraise for Reading David Jones: Thomas Dilworth, one of the foremost contemporary Jones scholars, has taken infinite time and trouble to produce this exemplary guide to Jones's major works - the author's intense and thoughtful focus on this difficult poetry bears rich rewards. Those of us who, like Auden, have persisted with the task of "reading David Jones" owe Dilworth a substantial debt. THE TLS 'Dilworth is capable, patient, hugely knowledgeable and always informative.' THE REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES

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Book SynopsisNearly 100 years after Franz Kafka's death, his works continue to intrigue and haunt us. Even for those who are only fleetingly acquainted with his unfinished novels, or his stories, diaries, and letters, `Kafkaesque' has become a byword for the menacing, unfathomable absurdity of modern existence and bureaucracy. Yet for all the universal significance of his fiction, Kafka's writing remains inextricably bound up with his life and work in Prague, where he spent every one of his 40 years. Klaus Wagenbach's account of Kafka's life in the city is a meticulously researched insight into the author's family background, his education and employment, his attitude toward the town of his birth, his literary influences, and his relationships with women. The result is a fascinating portrait of the 20th century's most enigmatic writer and the city that provided him with so much inspiration; W.G. Sebald recognised that `literary and life experience overlap' in Kafka's works, and the same is true of this book.Trade Review`A useful addition to any thinking person's library... Wagenbach's volume on Kafka includes reproductions of Kafka's letters, original book covers and a well-drawn map of Prague showing the places mentioned in the text'- New Statesman; `Wonderful... Wagenbach is the doyen of Kafka scholars, and this is easily the best guide to his life and work: succinct, handsomely produced, and endlessly informative' - New York Sun

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Book SynopsisFew novelists have written so intimately about a city in the way that Charles Dickens wrote about London. A near-photographic memory made his contact with the city indelible from a very young age and it remained his constant focus. Virginia Woolf maintained that, `we remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens,’ as he produces `characters who exist not in detail, not accurately or exactly, but abundantly in a cluster of wild yet extraordinarily revealing remarks.’ But the `character’ he was drawn back to throughout his novels was London itself, all aspects of the capital from the coaching inns of his early years to the taverns and watermen of the Thames; these were the constant cityscapes of his life and work. Based on five walks in central London, Peter Clark illuminates the settings of Dickens’s London, his life, his journalism and his fiction. He also explores `The First Suburbs’ (Camden Town, Chelsea, Greenwich, Hampstead, Highgate and Limehouse) as they feature in Dickens’s writing.Trade Review`This is a small, delightful book, handsomely produced and shaped to fit an overcoat pocket, describing walks around parts of London associated with Dickens’s life and writings.’– The Literary Review; `gives us a splendidly clear and illuminating view, not only of the streets and the architecture, but of the sounds, smells, and intense human activity that both Dickens and Clark enjoy about London.’ – New Horizons

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Book SynopsisErnest Hemingway is most often associated with Spain, Cuba and Florida, but Italy was equally important in his life and work. This book, the first full-length study on the subject, explores Hemingway’s visits throughout his life to such places as Sicily, Genoa, Rapallo, Cortina and Venice. Richard Owen describes how Hemingway first visited Italy during the First World War, an experience that set the scene for A Farewell to Arms. The writer then returned after the Second World War, and found inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees. When Men Without Women was published, some reviewers declared Hemingway to be at heart a reporter preoccupied with bullfighters, soldiers, prostitutes and hard drinkers, but their claims failed to note that he also wrote sensitively and passionately about love and loss against an Italian backdrop. Owen highlights the significance of Italy in the writer’s life. Showing how the Italian landscape, from the Venetian lagoon to the Dolomites and beyond, deeply affected one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Hemingway in Italy demonstrates that this country stands alongside Spain as a key influence on his writing — and why the Italians themselves took Hemingway and his writing to heart.Trade Review‘An exceptionally lively study... Hemingway’s adoration of Italy never waned’. — Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsErnest Hemingway is most often associated with Spain and Cuba, but Italy was equally important in his life and work. This book, the first full-length study on the subject, explores the many visits Hemingway made throughout his life, to Sicily, Genoa, Rapallo, Cortina and Venice. Owen describes how Hemingway first visited Italy during the First World War, an experience that set the scene for A Farewell to Arms. After the Second World War, it was in Italy that he found inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees. Again and again, the Italian landscape – from the Venetian lagoon to the Dolomites and beyond – deeply affected one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Hemingway in Italy demonstrates that Italy stands alongside Spain as a key influence on his work – and why the Italians themselves held Hemingway and his writing close to their hearts.

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Book SynopsisEdward Thomas ranks as one of the foremost poets of the twentieth century, both in his own poetry and in his influence on subsequent poets. 'He is the father of us all,' asserted Ted Hughes.This book combines the story of his life until his death at the Battle of Arras in 1917 with numerous illustrations, including photographs, printed material and original letters, many of which have never been published before. The book will add to what is already known of Thomas and his family before and after his death by putting his biography into a visual and historical context.

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Book SynopsisIn 1888, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche moved to Turin. This would be the year in which he wrote three of his greatest works: Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Ecce Homo; it would also be his last year of writing. He suffered a debilitating nervous breakdown in the first days of the following year. In this probing, elegant biography of that pivotal year, Lesley Chamberlain undoes popular clichés and misconceptions about Nietzsche by offering a deeply complex approach to his character and work. Focusing as much on Nietzsche's daily habits, anxieties and insecurities as on the development of his philosophy, Nietzsche in Turin offers a uniquely lively portrait of the great thinker, and of the furiously productive days that preceded his decline.Trade Review'A major intellectual event... simply the best book I have read in a very long time on the greatest philosopher of the modern age' - John Banville'This brilliant book should be a great relief for anyone condemned to read the run of contemporary Nietzsche commentaries; and for anyone who isn't, it could be an introduction which is hard to imagine being surpassed in passion and lucidity' - The Times'Lesley Chamberlain has a rare gift for animating philosophy through intensely human stories' - Sunday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisH. Rider Haggard (18561925), author of King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain and She, was no stranger to the continent where his bestsellers were set. He lived in southern Africa from 1875 to 1881, a period that witnessed Britain's attempted confederation of the sub-continent, the Anglo- Zulu War of 1879, and the final subjugation of its indigenous peoples. In this new biography, the South African aspect of Haggard's life is explored in hitherto unrecorded detail. The success of King Solomon's Mines saw him relinquish a legal career to write full-time; he also became a respected agricultural expert and social commentator, receiving a knighthood for his public service.Haggard wrote over seventy books, fiction and non-fiction. His African adventure stories feature strong black characters, and the majority of his novels assertive female ones, not least She. Haggard's unwitting expression of the Victorian sub-conscious attracted the interest of both Freud and Jung. Haunted by a lost love, the tragic death of his only son and frequent bouts of depression, he endlessly probed the conundrums of life and death.Containing much new material, this biography explores Haggard's personal and public life to resurrect the writer whom Graham Greene, an admirer, called the buried man'.

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Book Synopsis'He [Harwood] is the sole Horatio known to me in this age of Hamlets...' - C. S. Lewis, from Surprised by Joy --- Cecil Harwood (1898-1975) - lecturer, Waldorf teacher, writer, editor and anthroposophist - pioneered and developed the first Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf) school in the United Kingdom (the New School in London, now Michael Hall School in Sussex). He also led the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain for some 37 years. In 1922, at the age of 24, Harwood attended a festival of English folk song and dance in Cornwall, alongside his life-long friend Owen Barfield. It was here - and not in the academic citadel of Oxford University, where they were both part of the literary circle known as the Inklings - that Harwood and Barfield were to encounter the work of Rudolf Steiner through meeting Daphne Olivier. Sun King's Counsellor provides an intricate picture of the human connections, cultural movements and spiritual background that contributed to what came together in Cornwall in 1922, leading to Harwood's life's work. Featuring a colour plate section and full index, it documents Harwood's early years and antecedents, marriages to Daphne Olivier and Margaret Lundgren, friendships with Barfield and C.S. Lewis, his life-changing meeting with anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner, teaching and educational work, and Harwood's critical role in healing divisions within the Anthroposophical Society. Based on extensive research of primary sources, Blaxland-de Lange's biography reveals the multi-faceted, flexible and sacrificial nature of this unique personality. Alfred Cecil Harwood - he preferred 'Cecil' instead of Alfred, with its meaning of 'wise counsellor' - began his career with the hope of becoming a writer, and had neither the intention nor ambition to become a teacher or the head of a national organization. Yet he became both an exemplary teacher and leader, as well as a celebrated author, editor, translator and lecturer.Table of ContentsIntroduction - PART ONE: 1. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rudolf Steiner, and a Meeting in Cornwall - 2. Family Backgrounds: Lord Olivier and Minister Harwood - 3. Personal and Professional Engagement - 4. Marriage and the Founding Years of Michael Hall - 5. Early Writings - 6. Waldorf Translator, Editor, Playwright and Author - 7. Prelude to Chairmanship of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain - PART TWO: 1. The Minehead Years - 2. The Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain in a Time of War - 3. Family Man, Advocate and Adviser - PART THREE: 1. The Destiny of Britain within Europe and the Wider World and the Individual Human Spirit - 2. The Anthroposophical Society and the Healing of Divisions - 3. Anthroposophia, New Friendships and the Role of Eurythmy - Conclusion - Notes - Index

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Book SynopsisEverybody knows Charlotte Brontë. World-famous for her novel Jane Eyre, she’s a giant of literature and has been written about in reverential tones in scores of textbooks over the years. But what do we really know about Charlotte? 
As the famous siblings celebrate their bicentenaries, Charlotte Brontë Revisited looks at Charlotte through 21st-century eyes. Discover the real Charlotte: her private world of convention, rebellion and imagination, and how they shaped her life and writing – including the paranormal, nature, feminism and politics. It’s an indispensable guide for students and literature lovers, and emphatically shows why Charlotte is as relevant today as she ever was.Trade Review`Interweaves biography and reference to scholarly material with [Franklin’s] own take on pertinent aspects of Charlotte’s oeuvre ... [Her] witty tone makes the calibration of these two things — the pleasure of the literary enthusiastic and the scholarly — both easy and enjoyable. Franklin deftly mixes contemporary humour with reflectivity ... superbly written, exuberant.’
 Brontë Studies Journal

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Book SynopsisA series of chronological entries documenting Lawrence Durrell's life (1912-1990) and writing career, preceded by "Antecedents" (1851-1910), and followed by "Aftermath" (1991-2019), listing the main events connected with his reputation since his death. There is a 16-page "Index of Persons".

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Book SynopsisIs there anything new to say about Robert Burns? John Cairney says it''s time to trash Burns the Brand and come on the trail of the real Robert Burns. He is the best of travelling companions on this entertaining journey to the heart of the Burns story. Internationally known as ''the face of Robert Burns'', John Cairney believes that the traditional Burns tourist trail urgently needs to find a new direction. In an acting career spanning forty years he has often lived and breathed Robert burns on stage. On the Trail of Robert Burns shows just how well he has got under the skin of Burn''s complex character. This fascinating journey around Scotland is a rediscovery of Scotlands national bard as a flesh and blood genius. On the Trail of Robert Burns outlines five tours, mainly in Scotland. Key sites include: Alloway - Burn''s birthplace. Tam O'' Shanter draws on the Alloway Kirk witch-stories first heard by Burns in his childhood; Mossgiel - Between 1784 and 1786 in a p

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Book SynopsisThis book weaves in all the reasons why the residents of Scotland love to live here; landscape, beautiful scenery, an air of mystery and the great history of the land. Thompson conveys Verne''s deep fascination with Scotland and takes the reader on a journey with Verne from his beloved Heart of Midlothian to exploring in the Highlands. This book also explains how Verne''s love for Scotland flooded into his literature. Jules Verne, pioneer in the science fiction genre, wrote world- famous books including Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days. His literary legacy is still celebrated today, his books have scarcely been out of print and have spawned a host of films and TV adaptations.

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Book SynopsisComprehensive and exciting biography of Jim Corbett, the man who tracked and hunted down the man-eating tigers and leopards which killed hundreds of defenceless field workers in the 1920s and 30s, throughout the jungles of Kumaon.

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Book SynopsisBorn in London in 1890, Angela Thirkell was Sir Edward Burne-Jones’s granddaughter, J.M. Barrie’s goddaughter and a cousin of Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. John Collier painted her portrait and she was drawn by John Singer Sargent and Thea Proctor. Between 1931 and her death in 1961, Angela published more than thirty books in a variety of genres. She began with the acclaimed family memoir Three Houses and later settled on her amusing Barsetshire series, inspired by Anthony Trollope but set in the present day. Angela Thirkell: A Writer’s Life tells the author’s story from her Kensington childhood to her two marriages and the birth of three sons, Graham McInnes, Colin MacInnes and Lance Thirkell, all of whom also entered the literary world. The book traces her decade in Australia where she wrote for magazines and newspapers and made radio broadcasts, followed by her return to London and her fortuitous meeting with a young publisher called Jamie Hamilton, which lead to her bestselling Barsetshire novels.Trade Review"[A] careful and sympathetic biography." * Times Literary Supplement *“[A] concise yet lavishly illustrated biography.” * New Criterion *"This is the book all Angela Thirkell enthusiasts have been wishing for. It illustrates so many instances of how she translated her own life into the fictional world of Barsetshire, and for those who haven't yet discovered her it will make them want to make that journey for themselves." -- Penny Alred, former chair of the Angela Thirkell Society"Hall's new biography of Angela Thirkell is detailed, highly readable, and revealing. Her wide-ranging research and a gallery of illustrations not seen before thoroughly revise our understanding of the formative influences on Thirkell's writing and life." -- Kate Macdonald, author of Novelists Against Social Change: Conservative Popular Fiction, 1920-1960

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Book SynopsisThis edition celebrates the centenary of Williams's birth. RAYMOND WILLIAMS (1921-1998) was the most influential socialist writer and thinker in post-war Britain. Now, for the first time, making full use of Williams's private and unpublished papers and by placing him in a wide social and cultural landscape, Dai Smith, in this highly original and much praised biography, uncovers how Williams's life to 1961 is an explanation of his immense intellectual achievement. "It is Smith's ambition to set out the lonely, almost monastic path Raymond took through childhood, army and adult education towards his deserved eminence. But the biographer's greatest achievement is to find his own discerning route through what often seems to be a jungle of contradiction... This is a worthwhile book and a very good one." - David Hare, The Guardian "It is a remarkable piece of work and will henceforth be essential to the understanding of the making of Raymond Williams." - Eric Hobsbawm "Becomes at once the authoritative account... Smith has done all that we can ask the historian as biographer to do." - Stefan Collini, London Review of Books "Carrying an impressive deal of intensive research lightly... the portraiture throughout is graphic, richly detailed and subtly shaded... in these packed, lucidly written pages..." - Terry Eagleton, New Welsh ReviewTrade Review"It is Smith's ambition to set out the lonely, almost monastic path Raymond took through childhood, army and adult education towards his deserved eminence. But the biographer's greatest achievement is to find his own discerning route through what often seems to be a jungle of contradiction... This is a worthwhile book and a very good one." David Hare, The Guardian; "It is a remarkable piece of work and will henceforth be essential to the understanding of the making of Raymond Williams." Eric Hobsbawm; "Becomes at once the authoritative account... Smith has done all that we can ask the historian as biographer to do." Stefan Collini, London Review of Books; "Carrying an impressive deal of intensive research lightly... the portraiture throughout is graphic, richly detailed and subtly shaded... in these packed, lucidly written pages..." Terry Eagleton, New Welsh Review

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Book SynopsisGwyn Thomas was born, the last of twelve children, into a Rhondda mining family in 1913. After a childhood marked by the strikes of the 1920s, he went off to study Spanish at Oxford University and in Madrid, where he met the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and witnessed the turmoil which would lead to the Spanish Civil War. On his return, amidst the economic mire of the 1930s and his own burgeoning teaching career in Barry in the 1940s, he picked up his pen and began to write. For more than forty years, until his death in 1981, as novelist, screenwriter, master of the short story, and prizewinning playwright, Gwyn Thomas delivered compelling and comedic portraits of his world of South Wales. His creative genius earned enduring fame on both sides of the Atlantic and on both sides of the European Cold War divide. As a provocative and insightful broadcaster, he embraced the possibilities of radio and television, whilst leaving his hosts and guests alike in fits of knowing laughter. This landmark biography, enriched with unrivalled access to private papers and international archives, tells the remarkable story of one of modern Wales's greatest literary voices.Trade Review'This punchy portrait of a real Welsh literary heavyweight hits home with the brutal realism of Thomas' jabbing prose and mordant wit.' - Jon Gower, Nation.Cymru; 'Leeworthy knows his subject intimately, sympathises with him entirely, and locates him globally in such a way as to leave the reader with no doubt as to his importance as a writer' - Bethan Jenkins, Wales Arts Review

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Book SynopsisThis fascinating book tells the story of Thomas Hardy's Wessex. Accompanying a multi-venue exhibition, it explores Hardy's life and work.Internationally-acclaimed writer Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is best known for his evocative depictions of the West Country landscape and its people, a region that he called 'Wessex'. What is less well-known is that this landscape also inspired him in many other aspects of his life, from campaigning for animal welfare to questioning the way society viewed women. This publication accompanies a blockbuster, multi-venue exhibition of the largest collection of Thomas Hardy memorabilia ever to be displayed at once.  Hardy was born in the West Country, a few years after Queen Victoria came to the throne, and spent most of the rest of his life among its landscapes and people. When he turned writer, these landscapes and people re-emerged as his 'partly-real, partlydream country' of Wessex, in novels like Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure.Hardy's Wessex now conjures up a range of mental images: from raging seas on the coast to haunting ancient monuments, Victorian towns packed with life to peaceful hillsides grazed by sheep. However, through Hardy's 87-year life span, the West Country changed dramatically. Ideas of the role of women, humans' responsibility to animals, the realities of war, love and courtship, superstition, social structure, religion and how people related to the world around them altered fundamentally. Through his stories and campaigning, Hardy was keen to show not only the rural idyll, but also the tensions and difficulties that lay beneath these views.These dramatic landscapes were the lens through which Hardy presented his worldview to his readership. From the tragedy of a woman saying farewell to her sailorlover on the end of Portland Bill, to a shepherd losing his flock and facing ultimate ruin on the chalky hills. The landscapes shape his characters, whose stories in turn convey his messages of social change to his readers.This publication will explore the impact that Wessex had on Hardy's works, and how living there shaped his views on the often divisive social issues of the period. Uniting beautiful landscape imagery with a selection of personal items from Hardy's life, this book will show you the man behind the literature.

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Book SynopsisPhilip K. Dick, the visionary author behind Blade Runner, is the most adapted science fiction writer in cinema history. Though he struggled to make a living during his lifetime, his work has since served as a deep seam of ideas to be mined by filmmakers such as Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Steven Speilberg, John Woo and Richard Linklater, resulting in some of the most successful and influential SF movies of all time. For the still-unequalled future world of Blade Runner to the mind-bending A Scanner Darkly, via the blockbusting action/adventure of Total Recall, Paycheck and Minority Report – not to mention the debt of gratitude films like The Matrix and The Truman Show owe to his work – the legacy of Philip K. Dick has revolutionised Hollywood. Illustrated with rare photos, Counterfeit Worlds is the first book to trace the history of Philip K. Dick screen adaptations, both in cinema and on television.

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Book SynopsisThis is a memoiristic book and a dual portrait, built around intense friendships with two leading public intellectuals who achieved celebrity status—Susan Sontag on a global scale, George Steiner principally in Europe, though also for a time in the US. For audiences at Woody Allen movies Sontag was the prime embodiment of the term “intellectual,” whose famous 1965 essay “Notes on Camp” won her an enormous following. For viewers of French, German and British television over decades Steiner was the primary interview show talking head, igniting controversy on many fronts, while also commanding a loyal audience for thirty years as a book critic at The New Yorker. To know Sontag and Steiner, as this memoir suggests, was often to feel overmatched and yet also bemused and awe-struck. Both of them gave off an air of omniscience and self-confidence, as if they had taken to heart the words of the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, who wrote, “I cannot become modest; too many things burn in me.”Maestros & Monsters is the work of a well-known public intellectual who was close to Sontag and Steiner over a half century, and who managed to bring them together on several occasions—the only times they ever met. Those encounters are among the most bizarre episodes in this narrative, which also features extended encounters with such literary figures as Arthur Koestler, Edward Said, Phillip Rieff, James Wood and others.Trade ReviewA delicious portrait of two difficult, brilliant intellectuals, and a spirited vindication of criticism as a noble calling.--Garth GreenwellThis superb book takes us back to the last moments of the golden age of American letters. --Cornel WestRobert Boyers has been in close contact with every seismic shift in literary, intellectual, artistic, and academic quarters.--Joyce Carol OatesA moving contribution to the history of our intellectual culture.--Darryl PinckneyA thrillingly generous book ... in the grand tradition of Samuel Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," Sainte-Beuve's biographical sketches, and Turgenev's "Literary Reminiscences."--Philip Lopate Table of ContentsIntroductionPart One: The Fascination of What's Difficult: Susan Sontag Chapter 1 Seriously Uncool? 21Chapter 2 Is This Rude? 34Chapter 3 Disappointments and Dismissals 44Chapter 4 Authority Figure. 58Chapter 5 Turn of the Cultural Wheel 70Chapter 6 The Therapeutic 80Chapter 7 To Teach or Not 90Chapter 8 Motherhood and Sexuality. 99Chapter 9 Rhapsode 106Part Two: Impossible to Tell: George SteinerChapter 1 A First Meeting. 113Chapter 2 I Had a Good Time 120Chapter 3 Under Attack 128Chapter 4 Master Teacher 139Chapter 5 An Evening with Arthur Koestler. 151Chapter 6 A Brave Beginning 162 Chapter 7 Creative Distortion. 170Chapter 8 I Wish You Hadn't Done That. 182Chapter 9. An Academy of One 195Part ThreeAfterword 203Notes 209Names Index 217About The Author 219Photographs 221

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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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