Biography: writers Books
The History Press Ltd Mothers of the Mind: The Remarkable Women Who
Book Synopsis‘The relationship between my grandmother and her mother was very important and indeed crucial to her childhood and the very early days of her writing … So, to have more insight into this particular aspect of my grandmother’s early life is very valuable.’ Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie’s grandsonVirginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath are three of our most famous authors. For the first time this book tells in full the story of the remarkable mothers who shaped them.Julia Stephen, Clara Miller and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they profoundly influenced the writers’ lives, literature and attitude to feminism. Too often in the past Virginia, Agatha and Sylvia have been defined by their lovers – Mothers of the Mind redresses the balance by charting the complex, often contradictory, bond between mother and daughter. Drawing on previously unpublished sources from archives around the world and accounts from family and friends of the women, this book offers a new perspective on these iconic authors.Trade Review‘The relationship between my grandmother and her mother was very important and indeed crucial to her childhood and the very early days of her writing … So, to have more insight into this particular aspect of my grandmother’s early life is very valuable.’ MATHEW PRICHARD, Agatha Christie’s grandson‘There have been multiple attempts to investigate the true character of Agatha, but it was a first for the Christie Archive Trust to assist research focused solely on Agatha and her mother’s relationship. Thanks to Rachel’s thorough curation of the evidence this is one particular puzzle we can now consider solved.’ JOE KEOGH, Christie Archive Trust‘This triple biography includes a remarkable and nuanced summation of Aurelia Plath’s life and influence, the first of any consequence that will see print … The author uncovers Aurelia’s early years and reveals the dedication and teamwork required to launch Sylvia Plath’s career.’ CATHERINE RANKOVIC, Aurelia Plath scholar and founder at AureliaPlath.info‘Rachel Trethewey’s meticulous examination of maternal influences on the literary achievements of Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath culminates in fresh insights about the complex mother–daughter dynamic between Sylvia and Aurelia Plath.’ RICHARD J. LARSCHAN, English Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth'These three portraits beautifully capture the variety and complexity of mother-daughter relationships.' -- The Lady * The Lady *‘Trethewey’s group biography is a revealing study of the vital significance of these mothers for their daughters, and of their vexed relationships.’ – Helen Tyson, Times Literary Supplement
£23.75
Silman-James Press,U.S. Raymond Chandler in Hollywood
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£18.89
NeWest Press Always Someone to Kill the Doves: A Life of
Book SynopsisCrafted from archives, interviews, memories, and bankers boxes of papers sent to the author during the years before her death, Always Someone to Kill the Doves: A Life of Sheila Watson is the portrait of a woman shaped by her times, by her turbulent marriage, by the clarity of genius, and by the moral sense of her Catholic upbringing. With the gentle touch of an old friend, Flahiff provides a poignant insight into the woman, the westerner, and the writer. Best known for the modernist novel, The Double Hook, and her part in creating the literary magazine White Pelican, Watsons life was as rich and complex as her finest literary creation.
£22.94
Apogee Books Science Fiction Around the World in 65 Days: The Journal of the
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£10.44
Monash University Publishing The Shelf Life of Zora Cross
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£17.09
Griffin Media Arthur C Clarke: A Life Remembered
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£17.99
Anvil Press Publishers Inc Sweet Assorted: 121 Takes From a Tin Box
Book SynopsisAs with many writers, Jim Christy keeps a "source file," notes, scrawled snippets of conversation, observations made on the run, photographs of people known and unknown, scraps of paper with puzzling notes written on them, receipts, matchpacks, and other assorted parapher-nalia that might come in handy for a future story, article, or essay. For Mr. Christy that source file has been an old Peek Frean's tin biscuit box. For nearly forty years the author has thrown-willy-nilly, and with neither rhyme nor reason-such seemingly random items into the box. There has been absolutely no system to it; maybe, the author says, "I thought I'll pay more attention to this later' or, perhaps, I've got to check that one out some day ...give it the attention it deserves." Being a restless traveller, investigative journalist, and raconteur, many of these items have rich and alluring stories attached to them. The Peek Frean's cookie box has provided the essential ingredients for a fascinating assortment of highly entertaining tales.
£14.39
Craven Street Books William Saroyan: Places in Time
Book SynopsisLavishly illustrated with beautiful, evocative watercolors, this record visits dozens of locations influential to the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan, best known for his play The Time of Your Life. Accompanied by well-documented biographical research, this series of paintings highlights places critical to Saroyan''s life, such as his family''s ancestral home of Bitlis, Armenia; the Fred Finch Orphanage in Oakland, where he spent five years of his early childhood; and the MGM Studios in Los Angeles, where he enjoyed a short and tumultuous career as a screenwriter. The majority of this collection, however, explores the beloved vistas of Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley from which he drew his inspiration -- from the Armenian churches of Fresno to the sprawling vineyards of the surrounding California landscape.
£23.79
Mage Publishers A Scholar for our Times: A Celebration of the
Book SynopsisShahrokh Meskoob was an Iranian writer and intellectual, who was born in Babol, on the Caspian coast, in 1924 and died in Paris in 2005. Imprisoned in the mid-1950s for leftist activities, he was forced to leave the country following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, after publishing two critical articles in the Ayandegan newspaper in Tehran. Meskoobs literary analysis of the Shahnameh and the poetry of Hafez, and his book Iranian National Identity and the Persian Language, all translated into English, demonstrate his view that national identity meant cultural identity and that modernity in Iran should be based upon an understanding of the best of Iranian culture. This book celebrates Meskoobs life and work in eight essays by prominent Iranian scholars and in a selection of facsimiles of his papers, now archived at Stanford University.
£39.09
Otago University Press Robert Lord Diaries
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£18.90
Edition Olms Marcel Proust: in Pictures & Documents
Book SynopsisFor a long time I used to go to bed early: possibly the most famous opening line in the French language and the first words of a masterly work whose author himself would even compare to a cathedral. In Search of Lost Time, the work of a man: Marcel Proust, the man of the work. Never before had a writer taken introspection and the workings of memory to such a level, and in the course of this prodigious quest brought a quasi-mystical aura to the taste of the humble Madeleine for generations of readers around the world. A work of keys, famously obscure -- that famous Proustian phrase -- and yet overflowing with fantasies, In Search of Lost Time gives us an invitation to penetrate the mysteries and secrets of its author. He is often described as a nervous, painfully shy individual, hiding away in his cork-lined bedroom; but between his fantasies and his real life experiences, who was the real Marcel Proust? And what can we learn from the famous Questionnaire to which he replied and which now carries his name? Containing many photographs, manuscripts and other unique documents, some of them never before published, this book -- the first of its kind about this literary genius -- celebrates the life and an era that have become timeless through the magic of the author''s unique style.
£38.25
ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon The Mongol Conquests in the Novels of Vasily Yan:
Book SynopsisVasily Yan (Vassily Grigoryevich Yanchevetsky, 18741954) was a writer of historical novels whose popularity survives the test of time. He was widely read throughout the Soviet era and continues to be popular in the post-Soviet era. This book is not just a biographical sketch of an important Russian/Soviet writer basically unknown to the Western public. The focus on Yan and his work also impressively demonstrates the dominant role of ideology in a totalitarian society, which is not just a socio-economic and political system of the past, but could reemerge in the future as ISIS has demonstrated. Shlapentokh shows that ideology and the cultural and intellectual life in totalitarian regimes are more complex than is often assumed. Intellectuals often enough engaged in stressful, but -- in its literary outcome -- captivating cat and mouse games with censors, the powerful, and the government.
£17.10
ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon The Green Butterfly: Hana Ponicka (19222007),
Book SynopsisTo the older generations in her native Slovakia, Hana Ponická is well-known for her successful children's books and courageous fight against the communist regime. Her psychological ordeal began in February 1977 when the elderly lady refused to sign the so-called anticharta, a condemnation of the human rights group Charter 77, which had published its first manifesto in the West on 1 January 1977. All Slovak and Czech artists had to sign the anticharta; they were forced by the regime to condemn the dissidents, the most prominent among them being Václav Havel (1936–2011), who were standing up against the violation of basic human rights enshrined in the Czechoslovak constitution following the conclusion of the CSCE treaty of Helsinki. Ponická, like most of her fellow artists, had neither read the Charter 77 manifesto nor the text of the anticharta; she thus refused to sign. Her courage prompted the regime to terrorize her psychologically. This political biography is the first ever written about Ponická, despite her being a household name in Slovakia. Josette Baer's analysis is based on Ponická's memoirs of that cruel year of 1977, newspaper articles she published prior to 1971, when the regime effectively banned any critical voice from publication, and newspaper articles she published after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 to promote the establishing of a rule-of-law state and democracy. The documents of the StB, the Slovak and Czech Security Services, are analyzed for the first time; they are evidence of how the StB tried to pressure the resilient and disciplined grandmother of three into obedience. Oral history interviews with Dirk Matthias Dalberg, Vlasta Jaksicsová, and Mary Šamal inform the reader about the situation of the Slovak dissidents of Charter 77, how normal citizens lived in the regime, and how the Czech and Slovak exile communities in the USA saw the dissidents in Communist Czechoslovakia.
£19.80
Daimon Verlag Rock Rabbit & the Rainbow: Laurens van der Post
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£39.19
Daimon Verlag Rock Rabbit & the Rainbow: Laurens van der Post
Book SynopsisSir Laurens van der Post, author, film-maker, storyteller of world-wide renown, soldier, prisoner of war, political advisor to heads of state, humanitarian, explorer, conservationist... the list goes on and on. His extraordinary curiosity, his love for the small and the great, and his tremendous feeling and concern for his surroundings and all that they included, set him travelling the lands and the waters of the world, a messenger in search of meaning. He touched and inspired many along the way, some of whom are to be found in the pages of this book. A true man of his time, Sir Laurens was born in 1906 in the interior of South Africa, served in the British forces during World War II, including three-and-a-half years in Japanese captivity, and lived and worked since that time in London, where he died just after celebrating his 90th birthday in December, 1996. ''The Rock Rabbit and The Rainbow'' was originally conceived as a Festschrift, or gift collection of writings, for Sir Laurens by several of his friends and then evolved into its present form, which includes numerous original contributions by Sir Laurens himself.
£34.55
Vitasta Publishing Pvt.Ltd Rabindranath Tagore Among Saints
Book SynopsisIn the eyes of the world, Rabindranath Tagore is celebrated as the illustrious bard of Bengal, a name that resonates globally. His literary works and philosophy have touched the hearts of generations, leaving an enduring legacy. Yet, hidden behind the timeless verses and laurels lies a lesser-known truth. Throughout his life, Tagore sought the company of saints, a quest that profoundly enriched his spirit. These personal encounters with India's spiritual luminaries, however, remained concealed in silence, unspoken and unwritten. It was Bipul Kumar Gangopadhyay, a renowned figure in India's spiritual and literary realms, whose determination and relentless research culminated in Sadhu Sannidhey Rabindranath, a Bengali masterpiece that reveals Tagore's intimate experiences with nineteen sages.
£15.99
Konark Publishers Ayyappa Paniker
Book SynopsisDr Ayyappa Paniker engaged with the world at various fronts through a wide range of activitiesas an academic, research guide, resource person at conferences, visiting professor at world-renowned universities, pathbreaking poet in Malayalam, translator, essayist, critic, editor and literary historian. But was this all that Paniker was?
£15.99
Museum Tusculanum Press En sejlbad for vindstille: En biografi om J P
Book SynopsisText in Danish.
£36.54
New Era Publications International APS L. Ron Hubbard: Poet/Lyricist
Book SynopsisThrough verse and lyrics, L. Ron Hubbard communicates his personal view of the world as no other art form can. His works span the entirety of his life: his youth, the New York years not to mention his greater journey to the ultimate heights of spiritual fulfillment.
£29.75
U Press George Brandes' Main Currents: A Companion
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£999.99
ListLab Writing Like Breathing: Dacia Maraini Anthology
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£19.95
Westland Publications Limited Growing Up Karanth
Book SynopsisTHE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE KARANTH, REVEALED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME! Karanth, Kuvempu, Bendre the trinity of modern Kannada literature; the pride of Kannadigas; It was Shivarama Karanth who took the culture of Karnataka beyond the shores of India with his dance and music. After Rabindranath Tagore, no one had mastered as many art forms as Shivarama Karanth. From the Foreword by Dr. Chiranjiv Singh, former Indian ambassador to UNESCO Kota Shivarama Karanth was the ultimate Renaissance Man. A giant of world literature, he produced dozens of novels, plays, children''s works, autobiographies, popular science books, translations and much else. In 1977, he was awarded the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award for the novel Mookajjiya Kanasugalu. But Karanth was more than a writer. He also dabbled in journalism and movie-making, ran a publishing house, and campaigned for environmental and political causes. He was instrumental in transforming the ancient dance-drama form of Yakshagana for a modern audience. While a great deal has been written about the man and his genius, there is little material about the intimate details of his life. Through much of his creative career, for instance, Karanth was unflinchingly supported by his wife, Leela. The Karanths had four children. The eldest, Harsha, died in 1961. The other three, Malavika, Ullas and Kshama, came together to present this uniquely personal account of what it was like to be the children of a creative genius. Growing Up Karanth documents their rare privilege , while also detailing the world of Shivarama Karanth through their eyes. Multi-layered and nuanced, critical and affectionate, and filled with revelations that open up new facets of their father''s life, Malavika, Ullas and Kshama reveal Karanth and his times like no one else can.
£20.89
White Goat Press Isaac Bashevis Singer Writings on Yiddish and
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£18.89
HarperCollins Publishers Mishimas Sword Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend
Book SynopsisThe stunning book from Christopher Ross, Sunday Times top 10 bestselling author of ‘Tunnel Visions’.Trade Review‘(Ross's) digressive reflections on his quest are personal, pertinent and philosophical: he gives a vivid picture of a Japan still haunted by nostalgia and nationalism.' The Times 'Entertaining, deftly written and wise…a very good book. Its achievement is that not only does it make the reader learn, it makes the reader think.' Daily Telegraph 'An engaging patchwork of a book, a blend of cultural history, memoir, travelogue and philosophical rumination.' Hari Kunzru, Sunday Telegraph ‘“Mishima's Sword” resembles a bento, those beautiful lacquered lunch boxes in which delicacies nestle side by side in separate compartments, each a feast in miniature.' New Statesman 'A fascinating read.' Arena Magazine
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers Michael Foot A Life
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Book Synopsis“A book that will leave no one indifferent, and no one affected in quite the same way.” —New York TimesA superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth centurySimone de Beauvoir''s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.Beauvoir vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
£16.19
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Papillon
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£17.99
HarperCollins Woman of Rome A Life of Elsa Morante
£12.74
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Updike
Book SynopsisUpdike is Adam Begley’s masterful, much-anticipated biography of one of the most celebrated figures in American literature: Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike—a candid, intimate, and richly detailed look at his life and work.In this magisterial biography, Adam Begley offers an illuminating portrait of John Updike, the acclaimed novelist, poet, short-story writer, and critic who saw himself as a literary spy in small-town and suburban America, who dedicated himself to the task of transcribing “middleness with all its grits, bumps and anonymities.”Updike explores the stages of the writer’s pilgrim’s progress: his beloved home turf of Berks County, Pennsylvania; his escape to Harvard; his brief, busy working life as the golden boy at The New Yorker; his family years in suburban Ipswich, Massachusetts; his extensive travel abroad; and his retreat to another Massachusetts town, Beverly Farms, where he rem
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Zelda
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£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Come Tell Me How You Live
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£15.29
HarperCollins Writer Sailor Soldier Spy
Trade Review“Important.... Reynolds, a former curator at the CIA Museum, demonstrates that Hemingway was afraid the FBI might uncover a dirty little secret he had hidden for more than 20 years: In 1940 he had agreed to assist the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s foreign intelligence agency.” — Wall Street Journal “Captivating. ... An important addition to the canon of one of America’s foremost writers. Reynolds’s unique biography reads like an espionage thriller.” — The Missourian “Nicholas Reynolds’s fascinating new research in Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy shows that [Hemingway] was in fact working for both the Russians and the Americans.” — New York Review of Books “Reynolds looks among the shadows and finds a Hemingway not seen before.” — London Review of Books “An engrossing read for Hemingway buffs as well as casual readers, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy adds more fascinating details to a life that remains continually fascinating.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune “Renowned American novelist Ernest Hemingway led a shocking secret life as a Soviet spy, according to claims in a new book. The startling revelations are detailed in Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy by former CIA officer Nicholas Reynolds.“ — Daily Mail (UK) “The riveting, brand-new story of how America’s greatest writer was shaped by his secret adventures as a spy for both U.S. intelligence and the Soviet NKVD: Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy is compelling, vivid, and essential reading for all Hemingway and espionage fans.” — William Doyle, author of PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy “A thorough, well researched, and highly readable account of Ernest Hemingway’s engagement with espionage (American and Soviet), Communism, and military adventurism. ... In particular, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy is the first book to put Hemingway’s dalliance with the Soviet NKVD in the broader context of Hemingway’s life.” — John Earl Haynes, coauthor of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America “[An] engrossing story of Hemingway’s disillusionment with American politics, his sympathy with communism, and his attraction to adventure and subversion.” — Kirkus Reviews “Drawing on his intelligence background, Reynolds uncovers a trove of documents that point to American novelist Ernest Hemingway’s recruitment in 1940 by the NKVD. ... Reynolds ably researches Hemingway’s World War II adventures. ... Intriguing. ... Recommended.” — Library Journal “[A] thoroughly researched exploration of Hemingway’s military adventurism.” — Publishers Weekly “Nicholas Reynolds ably weaves Vassiliev’s revelation, unavailable to previous biographers, into the tangled fabric of Hemingway’s event-filled life. Hemingway’s readers... will find it fascinating.” — Times Literary Supplement (London) “Colorful, fast-paced. ... [Don’t] miss an opportunity to read this fascinating story.” — The Journal of America’s Military Past “A must read for anyone who is a Hemingway fan.” — American Sailing Journal
£12.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Pretend Im Not Here How I Worked with Three
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£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Astounding
Book SynopsisTrade Review“An amazing and engrossing history...Insightful, entertaining, and compulsively readable.” — George R. R. Martin “Alec Nevala-Lee has brilliantly recreated the era eighty years ago when a handful of dedicated writers and one extraordinary editor gave American science fiction its modern shape. It is a remarkable work of literary history.” — Robert Silverberg, Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America “A gift to science fiction fans everywhere.” — Sylvia Nasar, New York Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Mind “Science fiction has been awaiting this history/biography for more than half a century....Here it is. This is the most important historical and critical work my field has ever seen. Alec Nevala-Lee’s superb scholarship and insight have made the seemingly impossible a radiant and irreplaceable gift.” — Barry N. Malzberg, author of Beyond Apollo “Astounding has taught me things I didn’t know; put in context things I did know; and corrected things I thought I knew. This is a wonderful, well-written book; a delight to read.” — David Drake, author of Hammer’s Slammers “Astounding is a sharp and detailed history of some of the major players in one of the most significant periods in modern science fiction. Highly recommended!” — Greg Bear, author of Blood Music “A riveting read—a journey to another dimension, one that tells us a lot about creativity, human resilience, and even American exceptionalism. The book is a must read for lovers of science fiction, to be sure, but really for anyone interested in culture, and how it jumps, bounces, and changes.” — Cass R. Sunstein, New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Star Wars, and Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School “This is a fascinating, well-written, and deeply researched account of the golden age of science fiction. The lives of the writers are every bit as compelling as their best stories and Nevala-Lee brings them alive.” — Jon Atack, author of Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology “An indispensable book for anyone trying to understand the birth and meaning of modern science fiction in America from the 1930s to the 1950s” — The Economist “Engrossing, well-researched… This sure-footed history addresses important issues, such as the lack of racial diversity and gender parity for much of the genre’s history.” — Wall Street Journal “Enthralling…A clarion call to enlarge American literary history.” — Washington Post “A captivating cultural history… fascinating and complex… reads with the immediacy of a good novel… Nevala-Lee has managed to distill the essence of their stories into a compelling tale of ambition, idealism and opportunism that should fascinate even those who have never read much science fiction at all.” — Chicago Tribune “[Astounding] is a major work of popular culture scholarship that science fiction fans will devour.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A laser-sharp study of science fiction’s golden age, the product of a small circle of writers and their guiding editor...Nevala-Lee’s warts-and-all look is a welcome contribution to the study of popular literature.” — Kirkus Reviews “A thoroughgoing scholarly effort… A chatty, slightly gossipy popular biography. Nevala-Lee approaches the four subjects with a full understanding of their status and importance, but treats them as human beings with their own constellations of talents and flaws… You don’t want to miss this one.” — Analog Science Fiction and Fact “Excellent… Ingenious… The story that Nevala-Lee pieces together here has never quite been assembled in such a detailed, balanced, and clearly written way… As literary and cultural history, Astounding may well stand as the definitive account of this important era in the growth of modern SF.” — Locus “[Astounding] is a rich, gripping cultural and historical study of how a small cadre of talents in a minor commercial genre became some of the most influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century.” — Nature “This wonderfully researched, expansive biography — humor, perspective, depth all much a part of it — is a document of things all but lost to time’s slurry, the portrait of a great editor in tandem with that of a genre’s maturation.” — Fantasy and Science Fiction “Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is an essential and long-overdue history of the golden age of science fiction, as reflected through the prism of some of its most significant contributors...it is an astounding history, and essential guide to a defining era of science fiction.” — B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog “[Astounding] is an expansive industry drama...but the real treat of the book is [Nevala-Lee’s] dogged efforts to make these authors feel like the imperfect, egotistic, and philosophically-biased people who made such a lasting impact on the genre.” — SyFy.com “exhaustive, well-researched examinations...[an] engrossing history” — The Verge “A mighty work of scholarship” — Dallas News “[An] illuminating biography...Astounding is a captivating read” — John DeNardo, Kirkus
£17.30
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Letters of C. S. Lewis
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£17.99
HarperCollins Ian Fleming
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£33.75
Penguin Publishing Group Along This Way
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.66
Penguin Publishing Group Love Unknown
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£21.47
Penguin Publishing Group James Joyce A Life
Book Synopsis 'Joyce fans should thank their lucky stars.' -The New York Times Arguably the most influential writer of the twentieth century, James Joyce continues to inspire writers, readers, and thinkers today. Now Edna O'Brien, herself one of Ireland's great writers, approaches the master as only a fellow countryman can. From Joyce's adolescence through his travels abroad to the publication of Ulysses-the scandalous masterpiece that was initially banned in the U nited States but later hailed as one of the most brilliant novels of the twentieth century-O'Brien traces the arc of Joyce's remarkable life. Her biography is a tribute, at once affectionate and stern, from a contemporary writer to one of our most significant literary ancestors.
£18.95
Harvest Books A Tale of Love and Darkness
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£15.26
Oxford University Press Memoranda During the War
Book SynopsisIn December of 1862, having read his brother''s name in a casualty list, Walt Whitman rushed from Brooklyn to the war front, where he found his brother wounded but recovering. But Whitman also found there a new world, a world dense with horror and revelation. Memoranda During the War is Whitman''s testament to the anguish, heroism, and terror of the Civil War. The book consists of journal entries extending from Whitman''s arrival on the front in 1862 through to the war''s conclusion in 1865. Whitman details his encounters with soldiers and doctors, meditates on particular battles and on the meanings of the war for the nation, and recounts his wordless though peculiarly intimate public exchanges with President Lincoln, a man Whitman saw often on the streets of Washington and by whom he was deeply fascinated. The book offers an astounding amalgam of death portraits, anecdotes of battle, last words, messages to distant loved ones, and remarkably restrained and muted descriptions of pain,Trade ReviewCoviello has done an excellent job here: the text itself, and the wonderfully argued and informative introduction to it, will, without doubt, help redirect studies of Whitman by throwing his post-Civil War writings into clearer contexts and a much sharper focus. * Nick Selby, Modern Languages Review, vol 102, part 1 *
£18.99
Oxford University Press T. S. Eliot
Book SynopsisThe twentieth century''s most famous poet and its most influential literary arbiter, T.S. Eliot has long been thought to be an obscure and difficult writer-forbiddingly learned, maddeningly enigmatic. In this compelling exploration, prize-winning poet Craig Raine finds a way to read and make sense of Eliot''s full corpus. He illuminates a paradoxical Eliot--an exacting anti-romantic realist, skeptical of the emotions, yet incessantly troubled by the fear of emotional failure--through close readings of his poetry, with extended analyses of Eliot''s two master works--The Waste Land and Four Quartets. Raine also examines Eliot''s criticism--including his coinage of such key literary terms as the objective correlative, dissociation of sensibility, the auditory imagination, and his biography, crafting a book that provides a concise introduction for beginners and a provocative set of arguments for Eliot admirers.Trade ReviewThe book is excellent on the influence on Eliot of Jules Laforge, and has a poet's astute ear for the stray effects of sound and syntax. * Terry Eagleton, Prospect *The most attractive quality of Raine's mind, in this book, is its vivacity, its enthusiasm, its racy pleasure in turning aside to compare a detail in Eliot with something in Nabokov, Kundera or Lawrence. * Denis Donoghue, London Review of Books *a fabulous stimulating book, which marries old-fashioned literary criticism to pleasingly off-beam cultural allusions. * Ian Thomson, The Spectator *This book is an ingenious and convincing demonstration that Eliot is still the Old Possum: lying unassertively low, but anxiously aware that the disinterment of the buried life is an undeniable imperative. But most importantly, it shows perceptively why Eliot's poems work with their unique compulsiveness. * Bernard O'Donoghue, Literary Review *(Eliot's) existence is in his published work. This explains the strategy of Raine's short monograph - an intensely argued reading of the words on the published page. The exercise is done brilliantly. A poet himself, Raine is hyper alert to nuance. He has a sensitivity to literary echo rivalling that of the greatest living reader of Eliot, Christopher Ricks. * John Sutherland, Financial Times *There are authors who one would rather read about than read. T.S Eliot is not one of them, yet there is both pleasure and profit to be got from Craig Raine's new study of the poet. * John Bayley, Times Literary Supplement *Do we need another book about him? The answer, given Craig Raine's T.S. Eliot, is a strong 'Yes'. * Sean O'Brien, Sunday Times (Culture) *a sensitive, wide-ranging and stimulating piece of literary criticism * Sunday Telegraph *This is a thoughtful book on a thorny subject. * John Montague, Irish Times (Dublin) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Preface ; Introduction: Eliot and the Buried Life ; Chapter 1: The Failure to Live ; Chapter 2: Eliot as Classicist ; Chapter 3: The Waste Land ; Chapter 4: Four Quartets ; Chapter 5: The Drama ; Chapter 6: The Criticism ; Appendix 1: Eliot and Anti-Semitism ; Appendix 2: Two Free Translations by Craig Raine of 'Lune de Miel' and 'Dans le Restaurant' ; Appendix 3: An Eliot Chronology ; Notes ; Index
£20.24
Oxford University Press Goddess of the Market
Book SynopsisWorshipped by her fans, denounced by her enemies, and forever shadowed by controversy and scandal, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand was a powerful thinker whose views on government and markets shaped the conservative movement from its earliest days. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rand''s private papers and the original, unedited versions of Rand''s journals, Jennifer Burns offers a groundbreaking reassessment of this key cultural figure, examining her life, her ideas, and her impact on conservative political thought. Goddess of the Market follows Rand from her childhood in Russia through her meteoric rise from struggling Hollywood screenwriter to bestselling novelist, including the writing of her wildly successful The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Burns highlights the two facets of Rand''s work that make her a perennial draw for those on the right: her promotion of capitalism, and her defense of limited government. Both sprang from her early, bitter experience of life under Communism, and became among the most deeply enduring of her messages, attracting a diverse audience of college students and intellectuals, business people and Republican Party activists, libertarians and conservatives. The book also traces the development of Rand''s Objectivist philosophy and her relationship with Nathaniel Branden, her closest intellectual partner, with whom she had an explosive falling out in 1968. One of the Denver Post''s Great Reads of 2009 One of Bloomberg News''s Top Nonfiction Books of 2009 Excellent. --Time magazine A terrific book--a serious consideration of Rand''s ideas, and her role in the conservative movement of the past three quarters of a century. --The American Thinker A wonderful book: beautifully written, completely balanced, extensively researched. The match between author and subject is so perfect that one might believe that the author was chosen by the gods to write this book. She has sympathy and affection for her subject but treats her as a human being, with no attempt to cover up the foibles. --Mises Economics BlogTrade ReviewBurns has crafted a superb biography that traces her influence, places Rand in historical context, avoids both condemnation and hagiography, and undercuts the view, fostered by Rand herself, that she was a self-created genius. * Lewis A. Erenberg, Journal of Historical Biography *a well researched and readable account of Objectivist philosophy, Rand's life and accounts of the sometimes misanthropic personalities if not the philosophy involved. * Martin Jenkins, Chartist *Burns contributes so much to understanding the philosophies behind Rand's literature, libertarian thinking, and the philosophical underpinnings of the American right, that this book is sure to be of interest to many. * John Krueckeberg, Literature & History *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Part I. The Education of Ayn Rand, 1905-1943 ; Ch. 1. From Russia to Roosevelt ; Ch. 2. Individualists of the World, Unite! ; Ch. 3. A New Credo of Freedom ; Part II. From Novelist to Philosopher, 1944-1957 ; Ch. 4. The Real Root of Evil ; Ch. 5. A Round Universe ; Part III. Who Is John Galt? 1957-1968 ; Ch. 6. Big Sister is Watching You ; Ch. 7. Radicals for Capitalism ; Ch. 8. Love is Exception Making ; Part IV. Legacies ; Ch. 9. It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand ; Epilogue Ayn Rand in American Memory ; Notes ; Essay on Sources ; Bibliography
£17.99
Vintage Publishing Eliot After The Waste Land
Book SynopsisRobert Crawford is a poet, biographer, critic and literary historian who has published eight full collections of poetry and many prose books, including two major biographies of T.S. Eliot: Young Eliot and Eliot After The Waste Land. Emeritus Wardlaw Professor of Poetry at the University of St Andrews, he is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.Trade ReviewExcellent... Full of voices, friendships and conflicts, Crawford's book is rich and dense as Christmas cake... [An] outstanding biography. -- Sean O'Brien * Daily Telegraph, *5-star review* *Astonishing... This book is properly complex, both in terms of the art and the life. -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman *Crawford's work is impeccable... [A] magisterial account... the tender, elegiac final notes of this book are...striking. -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman *Excellent... Nothing is simple within this hefty, detailed narrative and Crawford remains impeccably fair... [an] absorbing biography. -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail, *Book of the Week* *A thorough, solid sequel to Crawford's much-praised Young Eliot... This biography...is going to play a large part in any future assessment of Eliot. -- Philip Hensher * Spectator *
£22.50
Pennsylvania State University Press Machado de Assis Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
Yale University Press Joseph Brodsky
Book SynopsisThe life of Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), one of Russia's great modern poets, is the stuff of legend, from his survival of the siege of Leningrad in early childhood to his expulsion from the Soviet Union and his achievements as a Nobel Prize winner and America's poet laureate. This title illuminates his life and work.Trade ReviewPraise for Joseph Brodsky: A Life (Russian edition): “The best single literary biography of the writer yet to have appeared in any language.”—Times Literary Supplement * Times Literary Supplement *"…[a] warm and appreciative study."—Derek Mahon, Literary Review -- Derek Mahon * Literary Review *"A delightful literary biography. . . . This work is a pleasure, and it sheds light on unexpected details about the poet."—D. Hutchins, CHOICE -- D. Hutchins * CHOICE *“Wonderfully full and yet concise, both scholarly and elegant at the same time. A necessary guide to Brodsky’s poems.”—Andrei Zorin, Oxford University -- Andrei Zorin"The first authoritative literary biography of Nobel-prize winning Russian-American poet, Joseph Brodsky. This is a book.which will remain the canonical work for years to come."—Jane Taubman, Amherst College -- Jane Taubman'Witty, urbane, engaging. . . . Lev Loseff, an important Russian poet in his own right, provides a wealth of new, important information. A magnificent contribution.”—David M. Bethea, University of Wisconsin-Madison -- David M. Bethea"The author of Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life has accomplished the feat of discussing a poet’s work persuasively in a language other than his own, and allowed us to glimpse the unique brilliance of the originals."—Carol Rumens, The Independent -- Carol Rumens * The Independent *“Joseph Brodsky: A Literary life handles the life with intelligence and tact, while its treatment of Brodsky’s art and mind will remain of permanent value.”—Andrew Kahn, Times Literary Supplement -- Andrew Kahn * Times Literary Supplement *“Lev Loseff’s Joseph Brodsky is partly a biography of the Nobel-Prize winning poet (though Loseff denies that biography was his intention) as well as a critical study and a memoir. It’s valuable on all three counts….Joseph Brodsky is a pleasure to read.”—Mark Jay Mirsky, Hareetz (English) -- Mark Jay Mirsky * Hareetz (English) *“….indispensable….”—Stephan Delbos, The Prague Post -- Stephan Delbos * The Prague Post *"Loseff ’s book is less the story of Brodsky’s life than an account of the growth of the poet’s mind, the kind of book that is rarely written in English now, as it falls between the monograph and biography."—Justin Quinn, Edinburgh Review -- Justin Quinn * Edinburgh Review *“…a meditation on the essential nature of poetry and the poet through the contrasting examples of two friends.”—Atar Hadari, Jewish Quarterly -- Atar Hadari * Jewish Quarterly *“The academic and poet Lev Loseff takes the reader through the fascinating life and work of his fellow Russian poet and friend Joseph Brodsky…Loseff provides much insight into Brodsky’s personal and literary life under Stalin and Krushchev, as well as detailed commentary on the development of Brodksy’s poetry.”— Pol O Mulrl, Irish Times -- Pol O Mulrl * Irish Times *
£37.11
Yale University Press Kenneth Tynan
£43.79
Yale University Press Karl Kraus Apocalyptic Satirist Volume 2
Trade Review“Edward Timms meticulously interprets this major writer’s most complex period of literary, cultural, and political activity, providing what amounts to an entire cultural history of the period.”—Professor Gilbert Carr, Trinity College Dublin
£59.37
