Biography: writers Books

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

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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. 

Read more less

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

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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 "

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisA BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week''This is such a great idea for a book, and Michelle Dean carries it off, showing us the complexities of her fascinating, extraordinary subjects, in print and out in the world. Dean writes with vigor, depth, knowledge and absorption, and as a result Sharp is a real achievement'' Meg Wolitzer, New York TimesDorothy Parker, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron and Janet Malcolm are just some of the women whose lives intertwined as they cut through twentieth-century cultural and intellectual life in the United States, arguing as fervently with each other as they did with the men who so often belittled their work as journalists, novelists, critics and poets. These women are united by their ''sharpness'': an accuracy and precision of thought and wit, a claiming of power through their writing.Sharp is a rich and lively portrait of these women and their world, where Manhattan cTrade ReviewThere can't be enough cultural histories which make the point that a woman intellectual must represent her own mind, and not the collective mind of all her 'sisters.' Sharp is a brisk, entertaining, well-researched reminder that it's impossible to write - or think - without making life very messy for oneself, but to do so is an achievement well worth the pains -- Sheila Heti, author of How Should A Person Be?I have to recommend Michelle Dean's Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, a delicious cultural history that comes out in April. It brings together some of the most influential social critics of the 20th century, including Dorothy Parker, Mary McCarthy, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag and Joan Didion, and shows how these glamorous iconoclasts forged their singular careers. Dean makes the convincing argument that women's voices--if not necessarily feminist ones--did far more to define the last century's intellectual life than we realize -- Michelle Goldberg * New York Times *[A] stunning and highly accessible introduction to a group of important writers * Publishers Weekly *Michelle Dean has delivered an exquisite examination - both rigorous and compassionate - of what it has meant to be a woman with a public voice and the power to use it critically. This book is ferociously good -- Rebecca Traister, New York Times-bestselling author of All the Single LadiesThis is such a great idea for a book, and Michelle Dean carries it off, showing us the complexities of her fascinating, extraordinary subjects, in print and out in the world. Dean writes with vigor, depth, knowledge and absorption, and as a result Sharp is a real achievement -- Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female PersuasionThis is a great and worthy project: a primer for those for whom these names are new; a sustaining reminder for those already familiar with them. You put it down feeling steadier, more determined -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Michelle Dean's Sharp, a portrait of 10 female writers and thinkers, is a bracing tribute to the life of the iconoclastic mind: a reminder, in our age of flashy hot takes, of the matchless power of sustained and elegant argument -- Pankaj Mishra * Guardian *A fascinating analysis of brilliant female writers. By the end you'll want to read something by all of them * Evening Standard *These crisp mini-portraits of some of 20th-century America's most brilliant women writers - like Joan Didion, Dorothy Parker and Nora Ephron - are so inspiring -- Carina Axelsson

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn exploration of the fascinating poetry, life and world of Sappho, including a complete translation of all her poems.Trade Review"... plain and elegant translations of Sappho’s fragments..." -- Times Higher Education"This short book provides an admirably clear and compact introduction to Sappho, while offering as a bonus a complete new translation of her frustratingly incomplete known oeuvre..." -- The Independent

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAll three books (Iris, Iris and the Friends, and Widower's House) are now available in a single edition, told by the person who knew her best, with gentle humour - at times unbearably moving - in Bayley's portrayal of a remarkable woman.Trade Review'The greatest love story of our age' Observer'A unique glimpse into the alchemy of marriage... a work of art’ Victoria Glendinning, Daily Telegraph'Love has everything and nothing to do with it. John Bayley has set the gold standard for a debased currency' Guardian'It is hard to do justice to the tenderness with which, in exquisite, measured prose and surprising detail, he evokes their marriage' Sunday Times

Read more less

Book SynopsisOver forty-five years have elapsed since Derek Mahon announced his arrival at the forefront of Irish literary life with the release of Night-Crossing, but he remains an elusive figure.In the first comprehensive biography of Ireland's greatest living poet, Stephen Enniss uncovers a remarkable personal story. Here he establishes the life circumstances which stimulated or provoked Derek Mahon into poetic response, detailing for the first time his troubled upbringing in Belfast, his youthful suicide attempt and his decades-long struggle with alcoholism. He sets Mahon's poems against these personal struggles and in doing so reconnects the work to the life while also making a compelling case for the restorative power of art.Based on extensive archival research, interviews with Mahon himself, his family members, classmates, colleagues and others he is closely associated with, After the Titanic sheds new light on some of Ireland's best-loved poetry.Whi

Read more less

Book SynopsisAllen Ginsberg occupies a significant and enduring position in American literature. Following Ginsberg''s death in 1997, Barry Miles has drawn on both his long friendship with the poet and on Ginsberg''s journals and correspondence to produce an immensely readable account of one of the twentieth century''s most extraordinary poets.Trade ReviewThis is a scholarly work and also much fun. * Guardian *Will surely be consulted as an Ur-text for decades to come. Read it at the end, along with Ginsberg's fifteen best books, and you'll know why he matters. -- Michael Horowitz * Sunday Times *Skilfully evokes the poet's childhood, authoritatively expresses his opinions on sundry matters of later life and work, gives him his due as lifeforce of youthful rebellion and in the 1960s counter. Read it; you'll enjoy yourself. -- Paul Berman * New York Times *Concentrating on the simultaneity of the public and private in Ginsberg's life, Miles gives us a richer insight into his poetic value - and a better read - than many a tight-lipped critical filleting. -- Saul Frampton * Time Out *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRussia’s foremost modernist master in a major new translationTrade Review"It seems almost impossible to pay adequate homage to the poetic genius and personal courage of Osip Mandelstam, manifested during a time in the Soviet Union of tyrannical repression and terror. These spirited and meticulous versions drawn from his poetry and prose, however, by the masterful translator Peter France, bring us considerably closer to achieving that goal. They attest to the extraordinary range and depth of Mandelstam’s complex artistic sensibility and intellect. Let us, simply enough, gratefully welcome them." -- Michael Palmer"Where Mandelstam the uprooted Jew and Mandelstam the would-be Hellene meet is in the attempt to wrest culture from disruption and to make a home from chaos." -- Clare Cavanagh - "Osip Mandelstam and the Modernist Creation of Tradition""Marvelous and heartrending..." -- Vladimir Nabokov"The greatest twentieth-century stylist in Russian." -- Guy Davenport"In Black Earth, Peter France has made all the right choices.....[His] approach has yielded outstanding results, conveying Mandelstam’s density with an elegance that brings pleasure from the whole, even before the reader fully digests the parts. Much of the future-oriented poetry of Mandelstam’s contemporaries now sounds hopelessly dated; Mandelstam’s poetry, meanwhile, flourished with the passage of time." -- Sophie Pinkham - Poetry Foundation"Black Earth brings me closer to Mandelstam the poet than to Mandelstam the mythic figure, and his “ancient language” is rendered into real contemporary poetry in English that succeeds in speaking eloquently to the inner eye and ear. This is all to the good." -- J. Kates - Arts Fuse"In Peter France’s elegant translation, English readers can access not only Mandelstam’s formidable ideas and images but also something of his rhythm, rhyme and sound-play.... This book is a portrait of a life crushed by history. But it testifies, too, to the persistence of spirit." -- Alexander Wells - Exberliner"With Black Earth: Selected poems and prose, Peter France, a veteran translator of French and Russian, has provided the first edition that consistently reflects the sound, sense – and resistance to sense – of Mandelstam’s poems and lyric prose." -- Benjamin Paloff - Times Literary Supplement

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the spring of 1884 Ulysses S. Grant heeded the advice of Mark Twain and finally agreed to write his memoirs. Little did Grant or Twain realize that this seemingly straightforward decision would profoundly alter not only both their lives but the course of American literature. Over the next fifteen months, as the two men became close friends and intimate collaborators, Grant raced against the spread of cancer to compose a triumphant account of his life and times—while Twain struggled to complete and publish his greatest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.In this deeply moving and meticulously researched book, veteran writer Mark Perry reconstructs the heady months when Grant and Twain inspired and cajoled each other to create two quintessentially American masterpieces.In a bold and colorful narrative, Perry recounts the early careers of these two giants, traces their quest for fame and elusive fortunes, and then follows the series of events that brought

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat if you could ask C.S. Lewis his thoughts on the questions we all ask ourselves from time to time - questions about friendship, education, suffering, God... and the meaning of life itself?Trade ReviewThis is a splendid book which reminds us of the whole body of thought revealed through Lewis' writing. It may help us see in a new light some of the things we have already read. It may send us back to read again, or for the first time, some of the spiritual classics that other works of C S Lewis have become. McGrath's claim that reading C S Lewis can change your life is no vain boast. Reading McGrath on Lewis could be a similarly momentous act in our journeys of life and faith. * The Methodist Recorder *If McGrath's purpose is to inspire his own readers to delve into Lewis's writings, he certainly achieves that. Highly readable.' * Reflections Magazine *

Read more less

Book Synopsis The American cultural historian, literary and social critic and college professor Paul Fussell (1924-2012) is primarily noted for his famous work The Great War and Modern Memory, but he also wrote and edited 21 books on a wide variety of topics, ranging from 18th century British literature to works on World War II and sardonic critiques of American society and culture. This book offers a thorough introduction to his writings and thought, and argues for Fussell''s importance and relevancy. Covering Fussell''s traumatic experience in World War II and the important influence it had on his life and outlook, this intellectual biography puts in context Fussell''s perspectives on ethics, the human experience, war, and literature as an evaluative and critical endeavor.

Read more less

Book SynopsisLee Clark Mitchell is Holmes Professor of Belles-Lettres at Princeton University, USA. He is the author of seven books, including Mere Reading: The Poetics of Wonder in Modern American Novels (Bloomsbury 2017), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year.Trade ReviewMitchell's sustained insight pushes the literary beyond alphabetic letters by recovering punctuation as more than an interface between words and the grammar of their articulation. In its most telling deployments, punctuation marks the conversion of format to content, seam to semantic gesture. Reading gets closer than ever, and with new power, in this study's riveting cross section of examples. On both prose and poetry, it's a terrific book, period. * Garrett Stewart, James O. Freedman Professor of Letters, University of Iowa, USA, and author of The Value of Style in Fiction (2018) *Mark My Words is a remarkable work that shows that `what we take away from both powerful prose and poetry are not the words themselves . . . so much as the suasions that typographical marks induce in our readings.’ Citing a compelling concatenation of writers--Nabokov, Dickinson, Baldwin, Cummings--this book provides fresh analyses that will be of interest to writers and readers. * Jennifer DeVere Brody, Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, and Director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, Stanford University, USA *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: What Can Punctuation Do? 1. Silence: Hemingway’s Periods 2. Hesitation: Baldwin’s Commas 3. Interruption: James’s Dashes 4. Rupture: Dickinson’s Dashes 5. Expansion: Woolf’s Semicolons 6. Hemorrhage: Joyce, Morrison, Saramago, Sebald 7. Enjambment: Cummings, Williams, Giovanni 8. Incarceration: Nabokov’s Parentheses 9. Plenitude: Faulkner’s Array Epilogue: Punctuation as Style Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The One, Other, and Only Dickens, Garrett Stewart casts new light on those delirious wrinkles of wording that are one of the chief pleasures of Dickens's novels but that go regularly unnoticed in Dickensian criticism: the linguistic infrastructure of his textured prose. Stewart, in effect, looks over the reader's shoulder in shared fascination with the local surprises of Dickensian phrasing and the restless undertext of his storytelling. For Stewart, this phrasal undercurrent attests both to Dickens's early immersion in Shakespearean sonority and, at the same time, to the effect of Victorian stenography, with the repressed phonetics of its elided vowels, on the young author's verbal habits long after his stint as a shorthand Parliamentary reporter.To demonstrate the interplay and tension between narrative and literary style, Stewart draws out two personas within Dickens: the Inimitable Boz, master of plot, social panorama, and set-piece rhetorical cadences, and a veTrade ReviewThe One, Other, and Only Dickens is sui generis... Stewart offers an exuberant appreciation of Dickens's language, a celebration of craft.... Stewart points toward a return to the pleasurable, slow reading of both criticism and primary texts, but Stewart champions sustained and passionate attentiveness as integral to that process. Stewart's lovely reading, and writing, will be a pleasure to readers who agree with Thackeray's 1847 appraisal of Dickens that 'There's no writing against such power as this-one has no chance!' * SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 *A series of compelling readings from the inklings of nebulous popular consensus. * Dickens Quarterly *Passage after passage of this kind not only leave you feeling as if you have consistently under-read Dickens, but also, retracing Stewart's granular detail, that Dickens is the unequaled master of English prose, the only peer in prose to Shakespeare in verse. * Victorian Studies *Table of ContentsForeword: Preparing the Way Introduction: Some "Reagions" for Reading 1. Shorthand Speech / Longhand Sound 2. Secret Prose / Sequestered Poetics 3. Phrasing Astraddle 4. Reading Lessens Afterword: "That Very Word, Reading" Endpiece: The One and T'Otherest Notes Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis_We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the Author_.' (John Keats to J.H. Reynolds, Teignmouth May 1818) John Keats is one of Britain's best-known and most-loved poets. Despite dying in Rome in 1821, at the age of just 25, his poems continue to inspire a new generation who reinterpret and reinvent the ways in which we consume his work. Apart from his long association with Hampstead, North London, he has not previously been known as a poet of 'place' in the way we associate Wordsworth with the Lake District, for example, and for many years readers considered Keats's work remote from political and social context. Yet Keats was acutely aware of and influenced by his surroundings: Hampstead; Guy's Hospital in London where he trained as a doctor; Teignmouth where he nursed his brother Tom; a walking tour of the Lake District and Scotland; the Isle of Wight; the area around Chichester and in Winchester, where his last great ode, _To Autumn_, was composed. Far from the frail Romantic stereotype, Keats captivated people with his vitality and strength of character. He was also deeply interested in the life around him, commenting in his many letters and his poetry on historic events and the relationship between wealth and poverty. What impact did the places he visited have on him and how have those areas changed over two centuries? How do they celebrate their 'Keats connection'? Suzie Grogan takes on a journey through Keats's life and landscapes, introducing us to his best and most influential work. In many ways a personal journey following a lifetime of study, the reader is offered opportunities to reflect on the impact of poetry and landscape on all our lives. The book is aimed at anyone wanting to know more about the places Keats visited, the times he lived through and the influences they may have had on his poetry. Utilising primary sources such as Keats's letters to friends and family and the very latest biographical and academic work, it offers an accessible way to see Keats through the lens of the places he visited and aims to spark a lasting interest in the real Keats - the poet and the man.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCBC BOOKS "CANADIAN POETRY COLLECTIONS TO WATCH FOR IN FALL 2024"For bpNichol’s 80th birthday, a selection of 80 pieces from his 1980s notebooks, an astounding trove of never-before-seen work. One of Canada’s most beloved poets, bpNichol (1944-1988), left a huge legacy of poetry, prose, scripts, comics, and playful interrogation of language after his untimely passing in 1988. In celebration of what would have been Nichol’s eightieth birthday, Some Lines of Poetry gathers excerpts from Nichol’s journals across the 1980s to give a unique perspective on craft, process, and a writer’s life. Featuring works in progress, insight into Nichol’s thinking, previously unpublished prose and lyric, visual, and sound poems, Some Lines of Poetry documents Nichol’s “apprenticeship to language” and his playful daily exploration of the limits of writing. Lovingly edited by noted poet-scholars Derek Beaulieu and Gregory Betts, who provide an afterword contextualizing Nichol’s practice, Some Lines of Poetry is a map of hidden corners, a guidebook to poetic play, and a tribute to Nichol’s ongoing influence."No other writer of our time and place was so diverse, attempted so much, and never lost sight of his intent." - Michael Ondaatje

Read more less

Book Synopsis“A visual treat as well as a literary one…for gardeners and garden lovers, connoisseurs of botanical illustration, and those who seek a deeper understanding of the life and work of Emily Dickinson.” —The Wall Street Journal Emily Dickinson was a keen observer of the natural world, but less well known is the fact that she was also an avid gardener—sending fresh bouquets to friends, including pressed flowers in her letters, and studying botany at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke. At her family home, she tended both a small glass conservatory and a flower garden. In Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, award-winning author Marta McDowell explores Dickinson’s deep passion for plants and how it inspired and informed her writing. Tracing a year in the garden, the book reveals details few know about Dickinson and adds to our collective understanding of who she was as a person. By weaving together Dickinson’s poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photography, and botanical art, McDowell offers an enchanting new perspective on one of America’s most celebrated but enigmatic literary figures.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less