Biography: writers Books
University of Texas Press D. H. Lawrence
Book Synopsis Croydon, England, was the setting of the famous three-way friendship of D. H. Lawrence, Jessie Chambers, and Helen Corke, all of whom made literary records of their association, and all of whom appeared as characters in Lawrence novels. Perhaps the most objective of these records were Helen Corke’s, which became difficult to acquire. Their scarcity and their continuing usefulness were the stimulus for publication of this volume, which contains in four statements Helen Corke’s “major comment on Lawrence the man and Lawrence the artist.” The “Portrait of D. H. Lawrence, 1909–1910,” a section from Corke’s unpublished autobiography, gives the reader glimpses into the earliest stages of the Lawrence-Corke friendship, when Lawrence worked to bring meaning back into Corke’s life after she had suffered a tragic loss. The “Portrait” tells of conversations before a log fire, German lessons, the reading of poetry, and sTable of Contents Introduction Preface Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Portrait of D. H. Lawrence, 1909–1910 D. H. Lawrence’s "Princess": A Memory of Jessie Chambers Concerning The White Peacock Lawrence & Apocalypse Index
£15.19
University of Texas Press The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel
Book SynopsisWhen Stoner was published in 1965, the novel sold only a couple of thousand copies before disappearing with hardly a trace. Yet John Williams’s quietly powerful tale of a Midwestern college professor, William Stoner, whose life becomes a parable of solitude and anguish eventually found an admiring audience in America and especially in Europe. The New York Times called Stoner “a perfect novel,” and a host of writers and critics, including Colum McCann, Julian Barnes, Bret Easton Ellis, Ian McEwan, Emma Straub, Ruth Rendell, C. P. Snow, and Irving Howe, praised its artistry. The New Yorker deemed it “a masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man.”The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel traces the life of Stoner’s author, John Williams. Acclaimed biographer Charles J. Shields follows the whole arc of Williams’s life, which in many ways paralleled that of his titular character, from their Trade Review[An] engrossing short biography. * The New Yorker *An excellent biography. * Wall Street Journal *Shields…hoovers up the available evidence and shapes it into an episodic narrative without giving much sense of what he makes of his subject…Shields's book is a handy corrective for anyone who's nostalgic for the days when American writers and publishers routinely ran up large bar tabs. * London Review of Books *A fine biography of Williams by Charles J. Shields, published by University of Texas Press * Texas Monthly *This rich biography gives new insight into the enigmatic man behind Stoner, a novel quickly forgotten after its 1963 publication but more recently recognized as a midcentury American classic. * Publishers Weekly, “The Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2018” *The Williams that emerges is not unlike Stoner himself: self-obsessed, given to petty feuds, and insecure about his abilities...It is to Shields’s credit that by the end of this finely crafted biography readers will feel they have some insight into this talented, troubled enigma of a man. * Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review *Despite obvious parallels with his fictional university protagonist, John Williams is both different and interesting enough to merit a book of his own, Charles J. Shields's The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel. It certainly helps that, like Williams, Shields know how to tell a good story, one that will appeal especially to those interested in the ins and outs of the publishing industry and the ups and downs of a writer's life. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Charles Shields has done us all a service by pointing up and pointing out the novelist's unyielding ambition and rigor. * New York Journal of Books *[An] exemplary biography, the first devoted to the life of one of America's most unusual writers. * Financial Times *[A] sharp-eyed biography. * Booklist *Through exhaustive research and sharp prose, Shields has composed a portrait of the complicated author and the particular darknesses that drove Williams to write, to overcompensate, to philander, to mansplain. * The Millions *Brief but compelling...The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel is a welcome reminder that even in the rarefied world of literature, good sometimes prevails. * Waterbury Republican-American *Shields' writing is captivating and reveals much about the wounded psyches of the GI Bill generation of American (male) authors. * Shepherd Express *Shields describes Williams's development and motivations and explains persuasively why a writer hungry for fame didn't go in for the postmodernist experiments of his time. * New Criterion *Shields accomplishes an admirable feat of objectivity in a biography published during our riven age of identity and tribal politics. * American Book Review *[John Williams's Stoner] has in recent decades become the sort of book that people adore, give to their friends, fiercely identify with, and dub 'the perfect novel.' And full credit to Charles Shields for going behind the scenes to fill in the picture of Williams's own—somewhat similarly miserable—life…Stoner's rediscovery reflects well on the artisanship of John Williams, a novelist whose accomplishments and foibles Charles Shields has brought ably into view. * Western American Literature *Charles Shields's biography of John Williams invites us to enrich our understanding of Stoner—and Williams's other writings as well—in The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel. Through his accessible style, his scrupulous attention to detail, and his use of source material and interviews, Shields provides us with a balanced study of a writer whose work has the power to transform the unremarkable into the astonishing. * Journal of American Culture *Charles J. Shields' subtitle accurately captures the scope, purpose, and content of the book. It's a biography of John Williams. It's a description of how Williams's major work came to be, and it's a reflection on the writing life, as lived by John Williams. I found Shields to be fair in his approach to all three. * Concho River Review *Table of Contents Introduction Part I. Nothing But the Night Chapter One: He Comes from Texas Chapter Two: “Ho, Ho! Wasn’t I the Character Then?” Chapter Three: Rough Draft Chapter Four: Key West Chapter Five: Alan Swallow Chapter Six: Love Part II. Butcher’s Crossing Chapter Seven: The Winters Circle Chapter Eight: “Natural Liars Are the Best Writers” Chapter Nine: Butcher’s Crossing Chapter Ten: Fiasco Part III. Stoner Chapter Eleven: “It Was That Kind of World” Chapter Twelve: “The Williams Affair” Chapter Thirteen: Stoner Part IV. Augustus Chapter Fourteen: Bread Loaf and “Up on the Hill” Chapter Fifteen: The Good Guys Chapter Sixteen: “Long Life to the Emperor!” Part V. The Sleep of Reason Poem: “An Old Actor to His Audience” Chapter Seventeen: “How Can Such a Son of a Bitch Have Such Talent?” Chapter Eighteen: In Extremis Epilogue. John Williams Redux Acknowledgments Notes Works Consulted A John Williams Bibliography Index
£22.79
University of Texas Press Leaving the Gay Place
Book SynopsisThe award-winning author of The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion traces the cultural upheavals of mid-century America through the life of Billy Lee Brammer, author of the classic political novel The Gay Place.Trade ReviewThe book is by turns a strong, clear biography (with shades of rock n roll memoir), a poetic ode to various places and people in midcentury Texas and an oral history, all of it plugging in to an increasingly turned-on, tuned-in and dropped-out Brammer. * Texas Observer *A comprehensive and compelling account of a life lived by a unique character against the background of a tumultuous era. * Texas Monthly *Daugherty recounts Brammer's saga and the times in which he lived in compelling fashion, which makes Leaving the Gay Place one of this year's best nonfiction books about Texas. * Dallas Morning News *Mr. Daugherty paints a persuasive picture of a young man as an ambitious novelist, feeling the frustration, in draft after draft, of trying to get a book exactly right. * Wall Street Journal *[A] superbly gauged and powerfully evocative new biography. * Bookforum *Stellar…For decades, the questions longtime devotees of The Gay Place have asked are: Where did this one-of-a-kind masterpiece come from? And what the hell happened to its author? Daugherty's biography tells us. * The American Interest *Daugherty does a very good job of describing both the promise and the sheer waste of Brammer's life. * Western American Literature *Daugherty offers those interested in the rise and fall of American liberalism and [Lyndon] Johnson a unique and personal window into this turbulent time. * Journal of Southern History *[Daugherty] has produced a rigorously researched and highly readable portrait that should expand interest in [Billy Lee Brammer], no small achievement when dealing with a figure whose standing in his home state is (in true Texas fashion) both immense and shrouded in obscurity...In Leaving the Gay Place, Texas has gotten the thoughtful, flesh-and-blood account of this larger-than-life border-crosser it has long awaited. * Resources for American Literary Study *A captivating new biography. * Porter House Review *Table of ContentsPrologue: New Frontiers Part One: Rural Electrification Part Two: Electronic Noise Part Three: Electrical Violations Part Four: The Body Electric Epilogue: The Great Society Acknowledgments Notes Index
£15.19
University of Texas Press William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock n Roll
Book SynopsisThe little-known history of William S. Burroughs's impact on some of the biggest names in music, from the Beatles to Bowie, and his role as a secret architect of the rock 'n' roll genre itself.Trade ReviewThere's a brilliant idea behind Casey Rae's William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll, which is that if you simply follow Burroughs through the rock 'n' roll years you'll see him achieve a flickering ubiquity—lurking here, eavesdropping there, photobombing the whole parade. It becomes a kind of alternative history. * New York Times *Melding personal reflections with scholarly research and interviews with those close to Burroughs, Rae has unearthed a trove of information sure to shake the foundation of even the most die-hard Burroughs junkie or rock fanatic. * Billboard *[Rae] writes with the passion of a teenager discovering new sounds, and the control and self-assuredness of a seasoned academic…William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll celebrates not only the gifted mind and bizarre life of a writer who changed literature forever with his magic and ideas; it also finally gives him the place he deserves in the pantheon of rock and roll. * NPR *Rae meticulously details the connections [between Burroughs and arty rockers]…The book is at its best when tracing the lyric and sonic collages of art rock and its offshoots to Burroughs's groundbreaking use of literary cut-ups—the snipping and resassembling of texts to form new texts. * Washington Post *Rae’s account is compelling, capturing the strangeness of Burroughs’s itinerant lifestyle, his bizarre obsessions (guns and the occult, mostly) and his Herculean appetite for drugs. * The Guardian *Maybe more rock stars romanticized his life and addiction than actually read his books, and some tried "to boost their own hipness through association," but Rae builds a convincing case that Burroughs has been underacknowledged in rock history. [Rae's book] nudges a legendary legacy from the cultural margins toward the mainstream. * Kirkus *Casey Rae has uncovered a vast, vast number of links between Burroughs and the music world, and he has put together an extraordinary book…will inform and delight anyone interested in the Beat icon. * Beatdom *[Rae's] focus on Burroughs' inspiring connections to literary rock stars of exceptional talent and renown makes for a welcome addition to the Burroughs shelf. * Booklist *A fluid, wide-ranging biography of influence…Essential reading for fans of Burroughs, Bowie, Reed, or Smith. * Library Journal *Casey Rae tells the whole story of a heroin addict who refused to hide his homosexuality during a time of saccharine conformity writ large across the American cultural landscape. * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette *I was consistently surprised and impressed by the wealth of information Rae had gathered for this book. William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll will no doubt enlighten and entertain its readers, even the ones who think that they know everything there is about El Hombre Invisible. * American Book Review *[Rae] discerns that some pop artists were looking 'to boost their own hipness' by seeking an association with Burroughs. But he also asks what it was about the dark, peculiar, and never popular author that made the likes of Deborah Harry, Richard Hell, and Nick Cave want to tie their names to his. * Washington Free Beacon *Rae offers thoughtful, generous analysis. As Burroughs's own cut-ups might, Rae renders a portrait of Burroughs's influence akin to a reflection in a disco ball: fragmented, refracted, multiple and beautiful. * Shelf Awareness *Rae’s account is almost as fascinating as its subject, and reaches many points across a multi-dimensional reality from which Burroughs’ ideas came and where they led. * Shepherd Express *A fundamentally comprehensive look at Burroughs' influence on the songs and culture of rock music...Written by a fan of the music and the work of the writer, the text provides a critical and informed analysis of both in a style that is both interesting and intellectually engaging. * CounterPunch *A strength of [William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll] is that [Rae] doesn't write from the perspective of a fan: none of the characters in these stories are idealized. Rather, it is their strangeness and their flawed human nature that are central to the narrative. * PopMatters *Casey Rae offers the most in-depth study yet of Burroughs' influence on and Zelig-like ubiquity within contemporary music. * Chicago Tribune *[A] captivating new book…marvelous. * Critics At Large *[William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll] evidences why some call Burroughs the godfather of punk, right next to Iggy Pop. * Alternative Press, "Top 10 Music-Related Books of 2019" *William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll is the rollercoaster and the wait all in one, patiently escorting you to the high points and still letting you enjoy the ride. * San Francisco Book Review *Rae sees Burroughs as a figurehead for generations of self-fashioned outcasts, drawn to the author through his appeal to rock musicians and the scandalous allure of his life…Throughout, Rae maintains a steadfast adherence to the lure of the bohemian outsider...Rae's stories are engaging...William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll endorses Burroughs as perennial outlaw. * Times Literary Supplement *[In William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll] you can learn much more about Burroughs' major influence on rock and roll in the 60s, 70s, 80s. * Open Culture *[A] rather excellent book...A passing knowledge of Burroughs’ work, his obsessions, and his philosophy – and all are expertly explained by Rae – make the connections sought and made by these musicians easy to understand, for Burroughs' subversive life-long battle against the forces of control, using his art as his weapon, is the very stuff that rock n’ roll claims to be made of. * Hot Press *[A] fascinating new book...Rae is an engaging storyteller and often an enlightening one...I’m grateful for Rae’s study and recommend it highly, not only to those (still) interested in Burroughs and rock music, but to anyone curious about the possibilities for creative synergy between the arts. * Journal of Popular Music Studies *Table of ContentsIntroductionNirvana the Hard WaySubterranean Homesick BurroughsHere, There, and EverywhereWatch That ManMusic and Other Dark ArtsBunkers, Punkers, and JunkiesHere to GoThe Western LandsAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex
£14.24
University of Texas Press Jose Marti
Book SynopsisThoroughly researched, written from a nonpartisan perspective, and as lively as a novel, this is the definitive biography of the revered Cuban patriot and martyr whose revolutionary movement eventually ended the Spanish colonial domination of Cuba.Trade ReviewThe life, the history and the facts are all here in López’s volume. It is thorough, compelling and a generally lively account... * The Washington Post *Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Mariano and Leonor Part One: Before the Fall (1853–1870) Chapter One. An Unlikely Prodigy A Boy's First Letter Chapter Two. The Teacher Appears Chapter Three. Trial by Fire Havana Farewell Part Two: Exile (1871–1880) Chapter Four. Spain Chapter Five. A Young Man's Travels Chapter Six. Discovering America (1): Mexico A Secret Mission Chapter Seven. Discovering America (2): Guatemala Chapter Eight. Homecoming, Interrupted Part Three: The Great Work (1881–1895) Chapter Nine. New York (1): A False Start In the Land of Bolívar Chapter Ten. New York (2): No Country, No Master Chapter Eleven. New York (3): The Great Work Begins Chapter Twelve. New York (4): The Final Push Chapter Thirteen. Farewells and Rowboats A Narrow Escape—and One Last Letter for His Patria Chapter Fourteen. "My Life for My Country" Epilogue: A Hero's Afterlife Notes Bibliography Index
£30.60
University of Texas Press Pastures of the Empty Page
Book SynopsisA collection of essays that offers an intimate view of Larry McMurtry, America's preeminent western novelist, through the eyes of a pantheon of writers he helped shape through his work over the course of his unparalleled literary lifeTrade ReviewA conclave of writers gathers to consider the late Larry McMurtry (1936-2021). . . . Sprinkled with surprising revelations, this is a good collection for every McMurtry fan’s library. * Kirkus *The elegiac remembrances offer intimate glimpses into McMurtry’s life (collaborator Diana Ossana recalls the “emotional breakdown” he suffered after a heart attack), with no shortage of surprises. . . . McMurtry’s fans will want to track this down. * Publishers Weekly *More than three dozen writers contemplate the legacy of Texas’s most beloved author. . . a moving tribute. -- Andrew Graybill * Texas Monthly *McMurtry, who died in 2021, famously referred to himself as a 'minor regional writer.' In this Festschrift, a host of authors and close friends, including his longtime screenwriting partner Diana Ossana, argue the opposite in essays that celebrate the author’s talents, contributions to literature, and mentoring of other writers. * Alta *This book is part eulogy, part memoir, part literary criticism. All of it is absorbing . . . Among the pleasures of Pastures of the Empty Page are the short biographical sketches of the contributors dangled like literary gifts at the end of each piece. * Austin-American Statesman *The essays in Getschow's book consider McMurtry's position in the pantheon of great literature — along with a critical take on how he wrote about minority groups. * Axios Dallas *In Pastures of the Empty Page, Getschow defines how each writer, by various avenues, was dealt an education in storytelling by McMurtry, the sensitive but formidable master of chronicling this region’s built and behavioral vernaculars. * Patron Magazine *On the whole, the quality of the [contributed] pieces is gratifyingly high. Some of the richest essays are evocative reminiscences by intimates, among them Ossana, Gregory Curtis, Mike Evans, and Beverly Lowry, all of whom served as sources for Daugherty. * The Times Literary Supplement *Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry (University of Texas Press) edited by George Getchow, contains essays from a who’s who list of Texas writers about Larry McMurtry’s influence on Texas culture and their lives. It includes an array of reflections on history and the writing process as well as anecdotes about McMurtry’s off-beat and innovative life. * Texas Observer *Table of Contents George Getschow, Acknowledgments Stephen Graham Jones, Foreword George Getschow, Introduction Native Ground Charlie McMurtry, In Awesome Wonder Paulette Jiles, The Boy with the Lamp Skip Hollandsworth, The Larry McMurtry I Knew Erik Calonius, The Master Geologist of Archer County Joe W. Specht, Larry’s Oil-Patch Legacy Teacher and Apprentices William Broyles, Leave His Saddle on the Wall Gregory Curtis, McMurtry’s Mild Discouragement Mike Evans, “Mike, It’s Larry. I’m in Trouble.” Myth Buster and Myth Maker Geoff Dyer, Ranging across Texas Doug J. Swanson, Gus, Call, Danny, and the Rangers Oscar Cásares, Snakes in a River Sarah Bird, Finding Home Reader and Bookman Bill Marvel, Larry McMurtry, Reader Greg Giddings, An Afternoon with Larry Brandon Kennedy, On Book Scouting and Ghostwritten Erotica Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Runaways Kathryn Jones, Bonding over Books Collaborators and Confidants Diana Ossana, Stirring the Memories Michael Korda, The Moby-Dick of the Plains Carol Flake Chapman, My Long Trail to Lonesome Dove Susan Freudenheim, An Unlikely Bond Sherry Kafka Wagner, Not So Silent Women Beverly Lowry, Scenes from a Friendship Katy Vine, Road Trip Tips from Larry McMurtry Critic and Champion John Nova Lomax, To Hell with the Sunny Slopes Jim Black, Writer, Pass By Elizabeth Crook, Loving Gus Workshopper Kathy Floyd, Somewhere, a Writer . . . Eric Nishimoto, McMurtry’s Rebuff Dianne Solis, At the Intersection of Aspiration and Asphyxiation Cathy Booth Thomas, Reckoning at Idiot Ridge Dave Tarrant, “Furthur” Legacy Stephen Harrigan, Writing Plainly and Unforgettably Alfredo Corchado, The Borderlands: A Home for Misfits Like Me and McMurtry’s Danny Deck W. K. Stratton, All My Friends Are Going to Be Larry Lawrence Wright, McMurtry Passes By
£22.79
Duke University Press Atlantis an Autoanthropology
Book SynopsisIn this literary memoir and autoethnography, poet and anthropologist Nathaniel Tarn reflects on a life lived in an array of times, cultures, and environments, from the Battle of Britain and postwar Paris to conducting fieldwork in Guatemala and the halls of academe and beyond.Trade Review“Nathaniel Tarn doesn’t fit our whole world within his imagined autobiographical Atlantis, but he comes intoxicatingly close by way of a rigorous and expansive investigation of his lifelong quest to achieve a science of spirituality. ‘Completion,’ Tarn declares, ‘is not a word that should ever come near this book.’ Likewise, no reader interested in the myriad histories and personae of the self will wish for it either.” -- Albert Mobilio“What a great pleasure it is to read such a thoughtful, original, and necessary book, one that touches on so many aspects of culture, the life of the mind, the sources and resources of the creative imagination, all indelibly arrayed against a long life full of exotic travels and memorable human encounters. There is so much to savor in this fabulously inviting work of courageous generosity.” -- Jed Rasula"A work of brilliant originality, simultaneously a memoir, an ethnography, a sweeping masterpiece of travel literature, and above all, a poetic testimony of unflinching intelligence and grand passion." -- Norman Finkelstein * Restless Messengers *"It’s singularly interesting experience to ingest this book, to be amid it, even to be overwhelmed by it. Atlantis, is a readable avalanche, a discontinuous (but still chronological) memoir, a Big Bricolage of notations, essayistic forays, diary squibs of living life, field notes and polemics, giving the reader charming and telling vignettes . . . these being anecdotes of rare drollery, along with polemics of incisive, and sometimes got-a-bee-in-bonnet challenges...." -- Rachel Blau DuPlessis * Restless Messengers *"Tarn brings to life a seven-decade career lived traveling and writing throughout the world. Impressive in his ability to conjure up meetings with publishers and conversations with friends that took place more than 50 years ago, Tarn builds on his experiences to create an ethnographic study of himself that reads like a biography that is an autobiography. Enthusiasts of anthropology, poetry, academic life, and self-writing will enjoy Tarn’s approach and the insider’s perspective he brings to a life spent translating, publishing, editing, teaching, and traveling. . . . Recommended. Graduate students through faculty." -- S. Batcos * Choice *"At its heart, it is an exploration of poetry: what it is and how it comes about within the mind of the creator. There are insights into the visionary poetry of Wordsworth and Blake, the need for the poet not merely to give pleasure but crucially to become part of the very spin of the world in motion. It is also about the many different sides of Tarn. . . . Although, at times, the writing is introspective, his style is always engaging and often conversational with a good dose of humour." -- Neil Leadbeater * North of Oxford *Table of ContentsForeword xi Preface xvii Throw One 1 Throw Two 7 Throw Three 16 Throw Four 22 Throw Five 31 Throw Six 39 Throw Seven 46 Throw Eight 57 Throw Nine 69 Throw Ten 80 Throw Eleven 93 Throw Twelve 103 Throw Thirteen 118 Throw Fourteen 127 Throw Fifteen 141 Throw Sixteen 149 Throw Seventeen 161 Throw Eighteen 170 Throw Nineteen 177 Throw Twenty 188 Throw Twenty-One 197 Throw Twenty-Two 205 Throw Twenty-Three 214 Throw Twenty-Four 225 Throw Twenty-Five 233 Throw Twenty-Six 242 Throw Twenty-Seven 255 Throw Twenty-Eight 265 Throw Twenty-Nine 273 Throw Thirty 278 Throw Thirty-One 284 Throw Thirty-Two 291 Throw Thirty-Three 296
£75.65
Duke University Press Atlantis an Autoanthropology
Book SynopsisIn this literary memoir and autoethnography, poet and anthropologist Nathaniel Tarn reflects on a life lived in an array of times, cultures, and environments, from the Battle of Britain and postwar Paris to conducting fieldwork in Guatemala and the halls of academe and beyond.Trade Review“Nathaniel Tarn doesn’t fit our whole world within his imagined autobiographical Atlantis, but he comes intoxicatingly close by way of a rigorous and expansive investigation of his lifelong quest to achieve a science of spirituality. ‘Completion,’ Tarn declares, ‘is not a word that should ever come near this book.’ Likewise, no reader interested in the myriad histories and personae of the self will wish for it either.” -- Albert Mobilio“What a great pleasure it is to read such a thoughtful, original, and necessary book, one that touches on so many aspects of culture, the life of the mind, the sources and resources of the creative imagination, all indelibly arrayed against a long life full of exotic travels and memorable human encounters. There is so much to savor in this fabulously inviting work of courageous generosity.” -- Jed Rasula"A work of brilliant originality, simultaneously a memoir, an ethnography, a sweeping masterpiece of travel literature, and above all, a poetic testimony of unflinching intelligence and grand passion." -- Norman Finkelstein * Restless Messengers *"It’s singularly interesting experience to ingest this book, to be amid it, even to be overwhelmed by it. Atlantis, is a readable avalanche, a discontinuous (but still chronological) memoir, a Big Bricolage of notations, essayistic forays, diary squibs of living life, field notes and polemics, giving the reader charming and telling vignettes . . . these being anecdotes of rare drollery, along with polemics of incisive, and sometimes got-a-bee-in-bonnet challenges...." -- Rachel Blau DuPlessis * Restless Messengers *"Tarn brings to life a seven-decade career lived traveling and writing throughout the world. Impressive in his ability to conjure up meetings with publishers and conversations with friends that took place more than 50 years ago, Tarn builds on his experiences to create an ethnographic study of himself that reads like a biography that is an autobiography. Enthusiasts of anthropology, poetry, academic life, and self-writing will enjoy Tarn’s approach and the insider’s perspective he brings to a life spent translating, publishing, editing, teaching, and traveling. . . . Recommended. Graduate students through faculty." -- S. Batcos * Choice *"At its heart, it is an exploration of poetry: what it is and how it comes about within the mind of the creator. There are insights into the visionary poetry of Wordsworth and Blake, the need for the poet not merely to give pleasure but crucially to become part of the very spin of the world in motion. It is also about the many different sides of Tarn. . . . Although, at times, the writing is introspective, his style is always engaging and often conversational with a good dose of humour." -- Neil Leadbeater * North of Oxford *Table of ContentsForeword xi Preface xvii Throw One 1 Throw Two 7 Throw Three 16 Throw Four 22 Throw Five 31 Throw Six 39 Throw Seven 46 Throw Eight 57 Throw Nine 69 Throw Ten 80 Throw Eleven 93 Throw Twelve 103 Throw Thirteen 118 Throw Fourteen 127 Throw Fifteen 141 Throw Sixteen 149 Throw Seventeen 161 Throw Eighteen 170 Throw Nineteen 177 Throw Twenty 188 Throw Twenty-One 197 Throw Twenty-Two 205 Throw Twenty-Three 214 Throw Twenty-Four 225 Throw Twenty-Five 233 Throw Twenty-Six 242 Throw Twenty-Seven 255 Throw Twenty-Eight 265 Throw Twenty-Nine 273 Throw Thirty 278 Throw Thirty-One 284 Throw Thirty-Two 291 Throw Thirty-Three 296
£18.99
New York University Press Avidly Reads Board Games
Book SynopsisHow we should think about board games, and what do they do to us as we play them?Writer and critic Eric Thurm digs deep into his own experience as a board game enthusiast to explore the emotional and social rules that games create and reveal, telling a series of stories about a pastime that is also about relationships. From the outdated gender roles in Life and Mystery Date to the cutthroat, capitalist priorities of Monopoly and its socialist counterpart, Class Struggle, Thurm thinks through his ongoing rivalries with his siblings and ponders the ways games both upset and enforce hierarchies and relationshipsfrom the familial to the geopolitical. Like sitting down at the table for family game night, Board Games is an engaging book of twists and turns, trivia, and nostalgia. Avidly Reads is a series of short books about how culture makes us feel. Founded in 2012 by Sarah Blackwood and Sarah Mesle, Avidlyan online magazine supported by the Los Angeles Review of Booksspecializes in shorTrade ReviewReaders with an avid devotion to a hobby bordering on obsession could empathize, and this is one of the charms of Avidly Reads: where a nonfiction author who is enthusiastic about their subject matter strives to maintain an even tone, here, their devotion for board games shines through. * Popmatters *Avidly Reads Board Games puts this marvelous form of group entertainment center stage and explores both the author’s personal connection with the genre and how different games create different experiences, both intentionally and unintentionally. * Manhattan Book Review *
£11.39
New York University Press Avidly Reads Board Games
Book SynopsisHow we should think about board games, and what do they do to us as we play them?Writer and critic Eric Thurm digs deep into his own experience as a board game enthusiast to explore the emotional and social rules that games create and reveal, telling a series of stories about a pastime that is also about relationships. From the outdated gender roles in Life and Mystery Date to the cutthroat, capitalist priorities of Monopoly and its socialist counterpart, Class Struggle, Thurm thinks through his ongoing rivalries with his siblings and ponders the ways games both upset and enforce hierarchies and relationshipsfrom the familial to the geopolitical. Like sitting down at the table for family game night, Board Games is an engaging book of twists and turns, trivia, and nostalgia.Avidly Reads is a series of short books about how culture makes us feel. Founded in 2012 by Sarah Blackwood and Sarah Mesle, Avidlyan online magazine supported by the LosTrade Review"Readers with an avid devotion to a hobby bordering on obsession could empathize, and this is one of the charms of Avidly Reads: where a nonfiction author who is enthusiastic about their subject matter strives to maintain an even tone, here, their devotion for board games shines through." * Popmatters *"Avidly Reads Board Games puts this marvelous form of group entertainment center stage and explores both the author’s personal connection with the genre and how different games create different experiences, both intentionally and unintentionally." * Manhattan Book Review *
£58.50
University of Toronto Press Josep Pla
Book SynopsisJosep Pla is Catalonia’s foremost twentieth-century prose writer. He witnessed and wrote about some of the twentieth-century’s most notable events including the Spanish Civil War and the foundation of the state of Israel. Due to a lack of translations of his work he is only now being discovered by the international audience and will soon join the ranks of major realist writers in world literature. In Josep Pla, Joan Ramon Resina teases out the writer’s deep-seated intellectual concerns and challenges the assumption of Pla as an anti-intellectual. Resina condenses Pla’s forty-seven volumes of work, including travel books, narrative fiction, and history, into eleven thematic units: including time, memory, perception, life, religion, metaphysics, utopia, and self-delusion. Resina acutely explores the writer’s authorial gaze and invites the reader to see the world through the eyes of one of the most underappreciated observers and writersTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface Chapter 1. Journalism as Literary Praxis Chapter 2. Journalism on the High End Chapter 3. The Gray Notebook: Between Chronicle and Memoir Chapter 4. Difficulty of the Novel Chapter 5. Rural Roots of Catalan Modernity Chapter 6. The Catalan Landscape Seen As a Painting Chapter 7. Remembering the Region Chapter 8. Shipwrecks with Monsters Chapter 9. A Sui Generis Liberal Chapter 10. Of Women and Days Chapter 11. Encroaching Death Works Cited Index
£49.30
University of Toronto Press The Canadian Constitution in Transition
Book SynopsisThe Canadian Constitution in Transition reflects on the ideas that will shape the development of Canadian constitutional law in the decades to come.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Constitution of Canada in a New Key Richard Albert, Paul Daly, and Vanessa MacDonnell 1. The Most Opaque Branch? The (Un)accountable Growth of Executive Power in Modern Canadian Government Mary Liston 2. The Future of Constitutional Change in Canada: Examining Our Legal, Political, and Jurisprudential Straitjacket Emmett Macfarlane 3. Section 96: Striking a Balance between Legal Centralism and Legal Pluralism Paul Daly 4. Canada’s "Constitution outside the Courts": Provincial Non-enforcement of Constitutionally Suspect Federal Criminal Laws as Case Study Wade K. Wright 5. Cooperative Federalism in Canada and Quebec’s Changing Attitudes Noura Karazivan 6. Religious and Political Communities in the Canadian Judicial Imagination: Two Tensions, Two Questions Howard Kislowicz 7. Collective Diversity and Jurisdictional Accommodations in Constitutional Perspective Asha Kaushal 8. Difference and Inclusion: Reframing Reasonable Accommodation Vrinda Narain 9. Freeing Inherent Aboriginal Rights from the Past David Milward 10. False Western Universalism in Constitutionalism? The 1867 Canadian Constitution and the Legacy of the Residential Schools Sujith Xavier 11. The Unstable Scope of Constitutionalized Property Rights in Canada: Public, Indigenous, and Private Dwight Newman 12. A Role for Human Dignity under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Emily Kidd White 13. Is the Permanent Campaign the End of the Egalitarian Model for Elections? Michael Pal 14. Immutability, Immigration Status, and the Limits of Equality Protection Efrat Arbel and Eileen Myrdahl Contributors Index
£30.60
University of Toronto Press The Stoic Strain in American Literature
Book SynopsisMarston LaFrance (1927-75) was a stoic for most of his life, although the basic humanitas of the man softened what otherwise might have been mere grim endurance. This tribute to him is a new kind of festschrift: the papers in it are unified by their strict critical focus on stoicism in American literature. The strain is evident in both the tension in the works of various important American writers and in the philosophical vein of stoicism which runs through several genres, over long periods of time.Of Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience (1849), LaFrance said: ‘It seems to me to be the best available statement of a distinctive philosophical position – the assertion of a moral self reliance – which is found throughout American literature … a peculiar strain of cussedness which seems to me to be an essential property of the American mind.’ That ‘strain of cussedness’ is explored in various ways in this book. These are
£21.59
University of Toronto Press Arthur Irwin
Book SynopsisFrom 1925 to 1950, Arthur Irwin was the driving force behind the success of Maclean's Magazine, first as an associate editor, then managing editor, and, finally, as an editor. He had strong views on what it meant to be Canadian, and under his direction Maclean's was moulded into 'Canada's National Magazine,' mirroring the development of Canada as an independent nation in the twentieth century. In the years before the outbreak of the Second World War, he was at the centre of the Maclean Company’s investigation of the Department of National Defence's system of defence contracting, or what has become known as the 'Bren Gun Scandal.' In the 1940s Irwin actively sought out writers of talent and potential and gradually added to the magazine's staff many Canadian writers who went on to distinguished careers, including Ralph Allen, Pierre Berton, Blair Fraser, and Scott Young. After leaving Maclean's in 1950, Irwin was appointed film commissioner at the
£29.70
University of Toronto Press Dickens on Education
Book SynopsisMany books have been published on Charles Dickens; there are, however, surprisingly few that have made more than passing comment on Dickens's treatment of schools and education. This is the more striking in view of the significance education had for Dickens, the forcefulness of the criticisms he made, and the influence of his opinions on the public. This account of Dickens's interest in education covers his life and times, and his fiction, speeches, articles, and letters, Since our knowledge of Dickens's own schooling in not very extensive, and minor errors are to be found even in Forster's account of his early years, the author has made a careful analysis of Dickens's formal schooling and other experiences that informed his mind. In the novels and short stories, Dickens discussed some fifty schools and more than that number of teachers. These portrayals of teachers, schools, and school life have been group by Professor Manning under various heads: education through church and c
£25.19
University of Toronto Press The Letters of Thomas Hood
Book SynopsisThomas Hood, 1799-1845, is one of the most notable minor authors of the late Romantic and early Victorian period. He began life as an engraver, and went on to write poetry and prose and to edit comic periodicals and annuals including Hood’s Magazine and New Monthly Magazine. His friends included Charles Lamb, Charles Wentworth Dilke, and Charles Dickens; his concerns, the provision of adequate copyright legislation and the plight of the downtrodden. Plagued by ill health and heavy debts, Hood managed to maintain his sense of humour and an affectionate warmth in his personal relations. Between 1835 and 1840 he lived in Koblenz and Ostende in an attempt to save money to pay his creditors in England. The letters he wrote at that time to his friends in London and to his family paint a vivid picture of the life of the English émigré. This is the only edition of Hood’s letters; it is definitive and thoroughly annotated. It presents more basic biographical information than t
£45.00
University of Toronto Press William Arthur Deacon
Book SynopsisWilliam Arthur Deacon was an intellectual patron and prophet in Canadian writing. For forty years, as literary editor of Saturday Night (1922-8), The Mail and Empire (1928-36), and The Globe and Mail (1936-60) he contributed vast amounts of time and energy to building a readership and a sympathetic climate for Canadian writers and writing. His correspondence put him in touch, as no other reviewer before him, with virtually every English- and French-Canadian author of his time. Based on his correspondence, books, and review columns, the biography views Deacon’s life in terms of this involvement and in the context of the cultural and political forces of his time. Deacon’s early years as a lawyer, his self-imposed literary apprenticeship, and his break with the law as a profession concurred with the sense of mission and destiny that were part of his Methodist family background and his personal theosophical beliefs. Coming to Toronto in 1922, he quickly established
£33.30
University of Toronto Press A.M. Klein Complete Poems
Book SynopsisIt is for his poetry that A.M. Klein is best known and most warmly remembered. This collection includes all Klein's poetry, both original works and translations from Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic, and Latin. Many of them, coming from all periods of his careers, have never been published.The poems are arranged chronologically according to date of composition. This makes possible, for the first time, an appreciation of Klein's poetic development. The editor's introduction places this development in the perspective of Klein's life and time, and in particular explores Klein's lifelong struggle to reconcile his dual vocations as both a Jewish and a modernist writer.The textual apparatus identifies all authoritative versions for each poem and lists all emendations and all substative variants in both published and mauscript versions. The explanatory notes gloss obscure terms and references. They also provide a rich context for appreciation and interpretation by drawing connections
£49.30
University Press of Mississippi Poe
Book Synopsis
£21.84
Cornell University Press Who What Am I
Book SynopsisGod only knows how many diverse, captivating impressions and thoughts evoked by these impressions... pass in a single day. If it were only possible to render them in such a way that I could easily read myself and that others could read me as I do... Such was the desire of the young Tolstoy. Although he knew that this narrative utopiaturning the totality of his life into a bookwould remain unfulfilled, Tolstoy would spend the rest of his life attempting to achieve it. Who, What Am I? is an account of Tolstoy''s lifelong attempt to find adequate ways to represent the self, to probe its limits and, ultimately, to arrive at an identity not based on the bodily self and its accumulated life experience.This book guides readers through the voluminous, highly personal nonfiction writings that Tolstoy produced from the 1850s until his death in 1910. The variety of these texts is enormous, including diaries, religious tracts, personal confessions, letters, autobiographical fragments, anTrade ReviewOffers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE *Paperno reads all his [Tolstoy’s] writings in relation to the central project of his life: the transformation of his life into a book that would teach others how to live.... ‘Who, What Am I?’ is an important book that will become a standard source for students, general readers and scholars alike. * SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW *Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). "Who, What Am I?" is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review *This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1. "So That I Could Easily Read Myself": Tolstoy's Early DiariesTolstoy Starts a Diary—The Moral Vision of Self and the Temporal Order of Narrative—What Is Time? Cultural Precedents—“A History of Yesterday”— Time and Narrative—The Dream: The Hidden Recesses of Time—What Am I? The Young Tolstoy Defines Himself—What Am I? Cultural PrecedentsInterlude: Between Personal Documents and FictionFrom Diaries to Childhood: Tolstoy Becomes a Writer (1852)—“I Think I Will Never Write Again”: Tolstoy Attempts to Renounce Literature (1859)—“I . . . Don’t Even Think about the Accursed Lit-t-terature and Lit-t-terateurs”: Tolstoy Renounces Literature Again (1870); and Again (1874–75)Chapter 2. “To Tell One’s Faith Is Impossible. . . . How to Tell That Which I Live By. I’ll Tell You, All the Same. . . .” Tolstoy in His Correspondence“What Is My Life? What Am I?”: Tolstoy’s Philosophical Dialogue with Nikolai Strakhov—“I Wish that You, Instead of Reading Anna Kar [ enina ], Would Finish It. . . .”—“In the Form of Catechism,” “In the Form of a Dialogue”—To Tell One’s Life—Rousseau and His Profession/Confession—The Parting of Ways: Tolstoy Writes His Confession, and Strakhov Continues to Confess in His Letters to TolstoyChapter 3. Tolstoy’s Confession : What Am I?Tolstoy Publishes his Confession—The Conversion Narrative: Excursus on the Genre—Tolstoy’s Confession : Step by Step—Tolstoy’s Confession Related to Rousseau’s and Augustine’s—After Confession: “Presenting Christ’s Teaching as Something New after 1,800 Years of Christianity”—Coda: Tolstoy’s InfluenceChapter 4. “To Write My Life ”: Tolstoy Tries, and Fails, to Produce a Memoir or AutobiographyThe Author Biography—“My Life”: “On the Basis of My Own Memories”—“Reminiscences”: “More Useful Than All That Artistic Prattle with Which the Twelve Volumes of My Works Are Filled”—“Reminiscences”: “I Cannot Provide a Coherent Description of Events and States of Mind”—“The Green Stick”: “Où Suis-Je? Pourquoi Suis-Je? Que Suis-Je?”—Tolstoy and the Autobiographical TraditionChapter 5. “What Should We Do Then?”: Tolstoy on Self and Other“Why Have You, a Man from a Different World, Stopped near Us? Who Are You?”—Master and Slave: Tolstoy Rewrites Hegel—Tolstoy and the Washerwoman—The Order of Things: The Church, the State, the Arts and Sciences—“Master and Man”—Coda: Nonparticipation in EvilChapter 6. “I Felt a Completely New Liberation from Personality”: Tolstoy’s Late DiariesTolstoy Resumes his Diary—The Temporal Order of Narrative: The Last Day—“On Life and Death ”—The Diary as a Spiritual Exercise—“I, the Body, Is Such a Disgusting Chamber Pot”—“I Am Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself. . . .”—“I Have Lost the Memory of Everything, Almost Everything. . . . How Can One Not Rejoice at the Loss of Memory?”—Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening—Tolstoy’s Dreams—Dreams: The World beyond Time and Representation—The Book of life: “It Is Written on Time”—The Circle of Reading: “To Replace the Consciousness of Leo Tolstoy with the Consciousness of All Humankind”—“The Death of Socrates”—Tolstoy’s DeathAppendix: Russian QuotationsNotesIndex
£21.84
Cornell University Press The One Other and Only Dickens
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
£20.39
Cornell University Press Thomas Manns War
Book SynopsisIn Thomas Mann''s War, Tobias Boes traces how the acclaimed and bestselling author became one of America''s most prominent anti-fascists and the spokesperson for a German cultural ideal that Nazism had perverted.Thomas Mann, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in literature and author of such world-renowned novels as Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain, began his self-imposed exile in the United States in 1938, having fled his native Germany in the wake of Nazi persecution and public burnings of his books. Mann embraced his role as a public intellectual, deftly using his literary reputation and his connections in an increasingly global publishing industry to refute Nazi propaganda. As Boes shows, Mann undertook successful lecture tours of the country and penned widely-read articles that alerted US audiences and readers to the dangers of complacency in the face of Nazism''s existential threat. Spanning four decades, from the eve of World WaTrade ReviewBoes's exhaustive, meticulous survey should come to represent an exemplar for scholarship seeking to document the lasting significance of an author's work. * Publishers Weekly *Boes's superb account is based on extensive archival research, including Mann's personal letters, as well as keen assessments of his novels. * The National Interest *Thomas Mann's War is important and timely. It is a reminder that literature is one of the first things to come under attack when authoritarianism takes hold, something for which there is ample evidence in our present moment, from China to Russia, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia. * The Wall Street Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction: For the Sake of Survival 1. Luddism 2. Communion 3. Cyberculture 4. Distortion 5. Revolutionary Suicide 6. Liberation Technology 7. Thanatopography Conclusion: American Carnage and Technologies of Tomorrow Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Permissions Index
£25.19
Cornell University Press Fyodor DostoevskyThe Gathering Storm 18461847
Book SynopsisThis second book in a three-volume work on the young Fyodor Dostoevsky is a diary-portrait of his early years drawn from letters, memoirs, and criticism of the writer, as well as from the testimony and witness of family and friends, readers and reviewers, and observers and participants in his life. The result of an exhaustive search of published materials on Dostoevsky, this volume sheds crucial light on the many unexplored corners of Dostoevsky''s life in the time between the success of his first novel, Poor Folk, and the failure of his next four works. Thomas Gaiton Marullo lets the original writers speak for themselvesthe good and the bad, the truth and the liesand adds extensive notes with correctives, counterarguments, and other pertinent information.Marullo looks closely at Dostoevsky''s increasingly tense ties with Vissarion Belinsky, Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, and other figures of the Russian literary world. He then turns to the individuals Table of ContentsIntroduction I. Pride before the Fall: Belinsky and the Aftermath of Poor Folk II. Havens from the Storms: The Vielgorskys, Beketovs, and Maykovs III. The Psycho-Spiritual Turn: The Double, "Mr. Prokharchin," "The Landlady," and "A Novel in Nine Letters" Conclusion
£18.89
Cornell University Press Making No Compromise
Book SynopsisMaking No Compromise is the first book-length account of the lives and editorial careers of Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, the women who founded the avant-garde journal the Little Review in Chicago in 1914. Born in the nineteenth-century Midwest, Anderson and Heap grew up to be iconoclastic rebels, living openly as lesbians, and advocating causes from anarchy to feminism and free love. Their lives and work shattered cultural, social, and sexual norms. As their paths crisscrossed Chicago, New York, Paris, and Europe; two World Wars; and a parade of the most celebrated artists of their time, they transformed themselves and their journal into major forces for shifting perspectives on literature and art. Imagism, Dada, surrealism, and Machine Age aesthetics were among the radical trends the Little Review promoted and introduced to US audiences. Anderson and Heap published the early work of the "men of 1914"Ezra Pound, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and T. S. Eliotand promoted women writers such as Djuna Barnes, May Sinclair, Dorothy Richardson, Mina Loy, Mary Butts, and the inimitable Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. In the mid-1920s Anderson and Heap became adherents of George I. Gurdjieff, a Russian mystic, and in 1929 ceased publication of the Little Review. Holly A. Baggett examines the roles of radical politics, sexuality, modernism, and spirituality and suggests that Anderson and Heap's interest in esoteric questions was evident from the early days of the Little Review. Making No Compromise tells the story of two women who played an important role in shaping modernism.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Buzz and the Sting 2. Temples of Tomorrow: Anderson and the Little Review, 1914–1916 3. Political and Literary Radicals 4. Interregnum: Chicago, San Francisco, New York 5. Pound, Yeats, Eliot, and Joyce 6. Lesbian Literature, Women Writers, and Modernist Mysticism 7. George Ivanovich Gurdjieff: A Messenger BetweenTwo Worlds 8. The Heap Era Epilogue: Post–Little Review Years
£26.09
Stanford University Press Reading John Milton: How to Persist in Troubled
Book SynopsisA captivating biography that celebrates the audacious, inspiring life and works of John Milton, revealing how he speaks to our times. John Milton is unrivalled—for the music of his verse and the breadth of his learning. In this brisk, topical, and engaging biography, Stephen B. Dobranski brushes the scholarly dust from the portrait of the artist to reveal Milton's essential humanity and his unwavering commitment to ideals—freedom of religion and the right and responsibility of all persons to think for themselves—that are still relevant and necessary in our times. Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, is considered by many to be English poetry's masterpiece. Samuel Johnson, not one for effusive praise, claimed that from Milton's "books alone the Art of English Poetry might be learned." But Milton's renown rests on more than his artistic achievements. In a time of convulsive political turmoil, he justified the killing of a king, pioneered free speech, and publicly defended divorce. He was, in short, an iconoclast, an independent, even revolutionary, thinker. He was also an imperfect man—acrimonious, sometimes mean. Above all, he understood adversity. Afflicted by blindness, illness, and political imprisonment, Milton always sought to "bear up and steer right onward" through life's hardships. Dobranski looks beyond Milton's academic standing, beyond his reputation as a dour and devout purist, to reveal the ongoing power of his works and the dauntless courage that he both wrote about and exemplified. Trade Review"Reading John Milton is an erudite and lively guide both to Milton's turbulent life and his riveting writings, and makes a powerful case for the excitement of engaging with him in our contemporary moment."—Joe Moshenska, author of Making Darkness Light: A Life of John Milton"Milton may have had the most tumultuous life of any major English poet. This lavishly illustrated study revitalizes our image of him by showing his deep immersion in—and resilience to—the catastrophes of his times."—Leah S. Marcus, author of How Shakespeare Became Colonial"This contemporary, informed, accessible introduction to Milton's life is the one book I might share with literally anyone who cares about language and literature. Dobranski reminds us that Milton was a public intellectual, and offers him back to us."—Wendy Furman-Adams, coeditor of Riven Unities: Authority and Experience, Self and Other in Milton's Poetry"Ingeniously organized around a biographical core, this full-throated celebration of the work and thought of John Milton heartily commends him to readers of our own age."—Thomas N. Corns, coauthor of John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought"This book provides an accessible, approachable, introduction to the life and writings of John Milton. Thoughtfully and beautifully illustrated, it seeks to open up one of the greatest poets in literary history to a contemporary audience."—Blaine Greteman, author of Networking Print in Shakespeare's England"Dobranski does a marvelous job of revealing just as much about Milton himself as he does about the man's work through close readings that create an illuminating portrait of an artist who 'aspired to transcend his own limitations, defeats, and prejudices, continuing to work tirelessly and trying to... help his readers to live freely and righteously.' This puts to rest the notion that Milton is just for academics."—Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Power of Language: "These defenseless doors" 2. Personal Loss: "Weep no more" 3. Combating Injustice: "Need not kings to make them happy" 4. Physical Suffering: "Only stand and wait" 5. Free Speech: "Precious lifeblood" 6. Arrogance: "Pride and worse ambition" 7. Forgiveness: "Hand in hand with wand'ring steps" 8. Resisting Temptation: "He who reigns within himself" 9. Doubt: "Strenuous liberty" 10. Surviving Disaster: "By small / Accomplishing great things" Epilogue
£26.99
Stanford University Press The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War
Book SynopsisAn incisive demonstration of how Orwell's body of work was defined by the four major conflicts that punctuated his life: World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War. Few English writers wielded a pen so sharply as George Orwell, the quintessential political writer of the twentieth century. His literary output at once responded to and sought to influence the tumultuous times in which he lived—decades during which Europe and eventually the entire world would be torn apart by war, while ideologies like fascism, socialism, and communism changed the stakes of global politics. In this study, Stanford historian and lifelong Orwell scholar Peter Stansky incisively demonstrates how Orwell's body of work was defined by the four major conflicts that punctuated his life: World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War. Young Orwell came of age against the backdrop of the First World War, and published his final book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, nearly half a century later, at the outset of the Cold War. The intervening three decades of Orwell's life were marked by radical shifts in his personal politics: briefly a staunch pacifist, he was finally a fully committed socialist following his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. But just before the outbreak of World War II, he had adopted a strong anti-pacifist position, stating that to be a pacifist was equivalent to being pro-Fascist. By carefully combing through Orwell's published works, notably "My Country Right or Left," The Lion and the Unicorn, Animal Farm, and his most dystopian and prescient novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Stansky teases apart Orwell's often paradoxical views on patriotism and socialism. The Socialist Patriot is ultimately an attempt to reconcile the apparent contradictions between Orwell's commitment to socialist ideals and his sharp critique of totalitarianism by demonstrating the centrality of his wartime experiences, giving twenty-first century readers greater insight into the inner world of one of the most influential writers of the modern age.Trade Review"A veteran Orwell scholar, Stansky provides a sketch of his subject's formative experiences before, during, and after some of the most seismic convulsions of the past century.... He makes an admirable attempt to present the real Orwell in all his seeming contradictions, a socialist who loved his capitalist homeland, a decent man who came to see the necessity of war, and a leftist who reviled communist tyranny."—Michael Washburn, The National Review"The evolution of the English writer George Orwell's thinking about war is instructive. In this slim and readable volume, Stansky considers how four wars transformed Orwell's worldview."—Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs"The Socialist Patriot is a considered analysis of the role of war in the development of Orwell's thinking, notably his sudden shifts from one ideological position to its polar opposite. In its text, as in its title, it captures what would be the two constants informing Orwell's engagement with the momentous events of his time."—Martin Tyrell, Dublin Review of BooksTable of Contents0. Preface: Writing about George Orwell: An Autobiographical Introduction 1. Before the First World War 2. The First World War 3. The Spanish Civil War 4. The Second World War 5. The Cold War
£13.94
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Last Interview: Conversations with Giovanni
Book SynopsisAt the start of 1987, Primo Levi took part in a remarkable series of conversations about his early life with a friend and fellow writer, Giovanni Tesio. This book is the result of those meetings, originally intended to be the basis for an authorized biography and published here in English for the first time. In a densely packed dialogue, Levi responds to Tesio’s tactful and never too insistent questions with a watchful readiness and candour, breaking through the reserve of his public persona to allow a more intimate self to emerge. Following the thread of memory, he lucidly discusses his family, his childhood, his education during the Fascist period, his adolescent friendships, his reading, his shyness and his passion for mountaineering, and recounts his wartime experience as a partisan and the terrible price it exacted from him and his comrades. Though we glimpse his later life as a writer, the story breaks off just before his deportation to Auschwitz owing to his sudden death. In The Last Interview, Levi the man, the witness, the chemist and the writer all unite to offer us a story which is also a window onto history. These conversations shed new light on Levi’s life and will appeal to the many readers of this most eloquent witness to the horrors of the Holocaust.Trade Review"With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a 20th-century titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose."Philip Roth"Whether as witness or imaginative artist, Levi stands high among the truly essential European writers of the past century."Michael Dirda, The Washington Post"The triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction glows virtually everywhere in Levi's writing. … Time and time again we are moved by his narratives of how men refuse erasure."Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelistTable of Contents Introduction: Judith Woolf I knew Primo Levi: Giovanni Tesio Acknowledgements Monday, 17 January Monday, 26 January Sunday, 8 February
£32.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Last Interview: Conversations with Giovanni
Book SynopsisAt the start of 1987, Primo Levi took part in a remarkable series of conversations about his early life with a friend and fellow writer, Giovanni Tesio. This book is the result of those meetings, originally intended to be the basis for an authorized biography and published here in English for the first time. In a densely packed dialogue, Levi responds to Tesio’s tactful and never too insistent questions with a watchful readiness and candour, breaking through the reserve of his public persona to allow a more intimate self to emerge. Following the thread of memory, he lucidly discusses his family, his childhood, his education during the Fascist period, his adolescent friendships, his reading, his shyness and his passion for mountaineering, and recounts his wartime experience as a partisan and the terrible price it exacted from him and his comrades. Though we glimpse his later life as a writer, the story breaks off just before his deportation to Auschwitz owing to his sudden death. In The Last Interview, Levi the man, the witness, the chemist and the writer all unite to offer us a story which is also a window onto history. These conversations shed new light on Levi’s life and will appeal to the many readers of this most eloquent witness to the horrors of the Holocaust.Trade Review"With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a 20th-century titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose."Philip Roth"Whether as witness or imaginative artist, Levi stands high among the truly essential European writers of the past century."Michael Dirda, The Washington Post"The triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction glows virtually everywhere in Levi's writing. … Time and time again we are moved by his narratives of how men refuse erasure."Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelistTable of Contents Introduction: Judith Woolf I knew Primo Levi: Giovanni Tesio Acknowledgements Monday, 17 January Monday, 26 January Sunday, 8 February
£11.69
University of Pennsylvania Press Let the Wind Speak: Mary de Rachewiltz and Ezra
Book SynopsisCarol Loeb Shloss creates a compelling portrait of a complex relationship of a daughter and her literary-giant father: Ezra Pound and Mary de Rachewiltz, Pound’s child by his long-time mistress, the violinist Olga Rudge. Brought into the world in secret and hidden in the Italian Alps at birth, Mary was raised by German peasant farmers, had Italian identity papers, a German-speaking upbringing, Austrian loyalties common to the area and, perforce, a fascist education. For years, de Rachewiltz had no idea that Pound and Rudge, the benefactors who would sporadically appear, were her father and mother. Gradually the truth of her parentage was revealed, and with it the knowledge that Dorothy Shakespear, and not Olga, was Pound’s actual wife. Dorothy, in turn, kept her own secrets: while Pound signed the birth certificate of her son, Omar, and claimed legal paternity, he was not the boy’s biological father. Two lies, established at the birth of these children, created a dynamic antagonism that lasted for generations. Pound maneuvered through it until he was arrested for treason after World War II and shipped back from Italy to the United States, where he was institutionalized rather than imprisoned. As an adult, de Rachewiltz took on the task of claiming a contested heritage and securing her father’s literary legacy in the face of a legal system that failed to recognize her legitimacy. Born on different continents, separated by nationality, related by natural birth, and torn apart by conflict between Italy and America, Mary and Ezra Pound found a way to live out their deep and abiding love for one another. Let the Wind Speak is both a history of modern writers who were forced to negotiate allegiances to one another and to their adopted countries in a time of mortal conflict, and the story of Mary de Rachewiltz’s navigation through issues of personal identity amid the shifting politics of western nations in peace and war. It is a masterful biography that asks us to consider cultures of secrecy, frayed allegiances, and the boundaries that define nations, families, and politics.Trade Review"[A] meticulous literary biography...Shloss illuminates the complexities of Mary’s life [and]...captures her 'fiercely principled' subject and the times in which she lived, using impressive research to highlight the obstacles she navigated to secure her father’s literary legacy. Pound scholars will appreciate new insights into his personal life." * Publishers Weekly *"In this deeply researched biography of an extraordinary and fascinating living person, Carol Loeb Shloss uncovers web upon web of the lies, secrets, and silences that entangled Mary de Rachewiltz even before her birth as Mary Rudge in 1925 in Bressanone, Italy (formerly Austria). What other major writer’s child has a life story that intersects at all points with both international geopolitics and her father’s boundary-crossing, world-making poetry and poetics; with the after-effects of one world war and the lived experience of another; with the hidden causes and devastating effects of Italian and Allied spy networks, including Hoover’s FBI, whose abuse of the law came to daylight in the Watergate investigation; with the contending by lawyers, scholars, and libraries over a valuable international literary estate? Let the Wind Speak casts new light on Ezra Pound’s controversial yet indispensable life and work through the lens of his daughter’s life, full of twists, turns, surprises, and mysteries, some of them still unsolved. As a portrait of Mary de Rachewiltz, it captures a moving image of its courageous subject—an eloquent poet, writer, and translator in her own right—as she navigates formidable familial, political, literary, and legal terrains over a turbulent century with forbearance, grace, and creative love." * Christine Froula, Northwestern University *
£30.60
University of Minnesota Press Inside the Gate: Sigrid Undset's Life at
Book SynopsisNobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset’s life at Bjerkebæk, her retreat in Lillehammer, NorwayInside the Gate offers readers a rare glimpse into Sigrid Undset’s life at her home, Bjerkebæk, now a museum and national landmark in Lillehammer, Norway. Immensely protective of her privacy, Undset filled the timbered house with books and created a writing space where she authored many of her famous works, including Kristin Lavransdatter. There she also raised her three children, tended to her beloved garden, and welcomed close friends and family members during three decades of personal joys, sorrows, and hard work.Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, Nan Bentzen Skille’s lively narrative presents an intimate portrait of Sigrid Undset’s intense emotional life and creative endeavors, with Bjerkebæk at the center of it all. Many photographs vividly illustrate the text. For readers who have long admired Undset’s literature, Inside the Gate provides new insight into the life and work of the Nobel Prize winner.Trade Review"A refreshing new look at the personal side of Sigrid Undset."—Bergens Tidende"Easy to read, richly illustrated, and at the same time written with great professional expertise."—Aftenposten"A lavish edition in every sense of the word, brimming with materials that have never been seen before."—VG"One of the joys of Inside the Gate is the many photographs and drawings of Undset, her children, the property at Bjerkebæk, and various memorabilia. The author reconstructs several key events in Undset’s life, such as a child’s confirmation party, detailing who likely attended, what they ate, and what Undset was writing about at the time."—Scandinavian HourTable of ContentsContents Foreword Lillehammer Station – Disembark on the right Sigrid Undset makes herself a home With an office in “Norway’s most beautiful home” The “guesthouse” that became the “priest’s house” The garden – “the third loveliest” in the world The children at Bjerkebæk Mathea Mortenstuen Miniature theaters and other sorts of drama The Nobel Prize comes to Lillehammer The difficult thirties “Fight for all that you hold dear” The curtain falls Epilogue Notes Chronology Photo credits
£15.29
University of Minnesota Press The Last Bookseller: A Life in the Rare Book
Book SynopsisA wry, unvarnished chronicle of a career in the rare book trade—now in paperback When Gary Goodman wandered into a run-down, used-book shop that was going out of business in East St. Paul in 1982, he had no idea the visit would change his life. He walked in as a psychiatric counselor and walked out as the store’s new owner. In The Last Bookseller Goodman describes his sometimes desperate, sometimes hilarious career as a used and rare book dealer in Minnesota—the early struggles, the travels to estate sales and book fairs, the remarkable finds, and the bibliophiles, forgers, book thieves, and book hoarders he met along the way. Here we meet the infamous St. Paul Book Bandit, Stephen Blumberg, who stole 24,000 rare books worth more than fifty million dollars; John Jenkins, the Texas rare book dealer who (probably) was murdered while standing in the middle of the Colorado River; and the eccentric Melvin McCosh, who filled his dilapidated Lake Minnetonka mansion with half a million books. In 1990, with a couple of partners, Goodman opened St. Croix Antiquarian Books in Stillwater, one of the Twin Cities region’s most venerable bookshops until it closed in 2017. This store became so successful and inspired so many other booksellers to move to town that Richard Booth, founder of the “book town” movement in Hay-on-Wye in Wales, declared Stillwater the First Book Town in North America. The internet changed the book business forever, and Goodman details how, after 2000, the internet made stores like his obsolete. In the 1990s, the Twin Cities had nearly fifty secondhand bookshops; today, there are fewer than ten. As both a memoir and a history of booksellers and book scouts, criminals and collectors, The Last Bookseller offers an ultimately poignant account of the used and rare book business during its final Golden Age. Trade Review "The Last Bookseller is a readable and witty book that offers an insider’s account of a vital, disappearing trade. Packed with wry observations of colorful personalities, Gary Goodman not only captures an important moment in antiquarian book history—when a small river town in Minnesota becomes North America’s first ‘Book Town’—but also asks hard questions about what has been lost in the wake of new technology. At turns poignant, sharp, and laugh-out-loud funny, this memoir walks the fine line between being informative and wildly entertaining. Goodman offers a historical record of the book trade as well as preserving the untold stories of the men and women who made a living by selling words. Opening this book is like stepping into an old bookstore: wonders are around every corner."—Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and In the Shadow of Dora "The Last Bookseller is an extraordinary new book, a beautifully written firsthand account of the adventures of a man who was a mover and shaker in the book business for nearly half a century . . . a sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant portrait of the larger-than-life characters, including the author himself, who dominated the world of books when books were sold by warm-blooded human beings instead of by soulless robots and a few mouse clicks. The Last Bookseller will be high on the must-read list of book lovers everywhere."—Mark Ziegler, author of Wordsongs "The Last Bookseller is the story of a dying breed—the traveling rare book dealers who roamed the earth at the end of the twentieth century. I knew Gary Goodman when he was selling books from a hole-in-the-wall bookstore in East St. Paul in the early 1980s. He went on to become one of the premier booksellers in the Midwest. In witty, unvarnished prose he describes what the book business was like before the internet drove the last booksellers to near extinction. This is a story that needed to be told."—Paul “The General” Kisselburg, Kisselburg Military Books "A well-written, engaging, educational inside account by an experienced bookseller of the contemporary antiquarian book business. Told with insight, analysis, and humor by one who survived the experience."—Steve Anderson, Ross & Haines Old Books "Luckily for readers, Gary Goodman tells his story with sardonic wit and good humor. The Dickensian parade of characters in this book world makes for delightful reading. Goodman’s journey from his Arcade Street shop in 1982 to the Stillwater Book Town several decades later traverses continents and centuries of a living (and dying) book trade. A great read!"—Lynne Murphy, Valley Bookseller "Gary Goodman, a true bookman in every sense, offers us a long-awaited memoir of the rich antiquarian bookselling tradition in the Midwest. The Last Bookseller is a delightful, behind-the-scenes account of his resolute pursuit of rare books and the building of one of the great bookstores in the region. And while there is much to lament about the decline of fine secondhand bookshops, Goodman’s influence can still be found in those booksellers who strive to emulate his passion, integrity, and professionalism. Essential reading for anyone who has enjoyed the pleasures of a fine secondhand bookshop!"—Judith Kissner, Scout & Morgan Books "A memoir from one of the last ‘hunter-gatherers in the book business.’ Goodman has all the requisite irascibility for a bookseller . . . lots of fun anecdotes about book thieves, bibliomaniacs, and other familiars of the book business."—Kirkus Reviews "Highly recommended, partly for Goodman's portrait of a lost world, but also for its colorful dramatis personae."—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "His wry and relatable chronicle of the trials and tribulations of an antiquarian bookseller in the Midwest as he builds an empire—or close enough, North America’s first book town—in Stillwater, Minnesota, is a worthy addition to the genre of ‘Golden Age’ booksellers’ memoirs. "—Fine Books Magazine "A swashbuckling tale of thieves and forgers, a man who would be king, celebrities and the never-ending search for gold—in this case, books, rare ones, and the lengths some will go to acquire them. He tells his tale like a man who has seen a thing or two and lived to tell about it, a story best unwound over a beer in the corner of a dive bar. . . [a] treasure trove of a memoir."—Star Tribune "For a chronicle of one of the late, great used book dealers, look no further than Gary Goodman's The Last Bookseller: A Life in the Rare Book Trade"—Minnesota Alumni "A wry, unvarnished chronicle of a career in the rare book trade during its last Golden Age."—Access Press "A desperate yet hilarious account of a career as a used and rare book dealer in Minnesota."—The New Indian Express "Poignant on the slow death of the independent bookshop, genially bemused by customers’ foibles, excited by rare finds and understandably grumpy about the depredations of the internet."—Times Literary Supplement Table of Contents Contents Introduction 1. Four Thousand Bad Books 2. Book Scouts and Dead Booksellers 3. Billions of Books 4. All for the Want of a Book 5. A Book Fair with the General 6. Bookman’s Alley and McCosh’s Mansion 7. Beating the Bushes 8. A Bookstore in Stillwater 9. Hoarding and Horse Barns 10. Travels to Book Towns 11. The King of Hay-on-Wye 12. The Mormon and the Map Thief 13. North America’s First Book Town 14. The Book Collectors 15. The Stillwater Booktown Times 16. The Beginning of the End 17. Survival Tactics Epilogue Appendix: Travel Journal Acknowledgments Bibliography
£16.14
University of Minnesota Press The Last Bookseller: A Life in the Rare Book
Book SynopsisA wry, unvarnished chronicle of a career in the rare book trade—now in paperback When Gary Goodman wandered into a run-down, used-book shop that was going out of business in East St. Paul in 1982, he had no idea the visit would change his life. He walked in as a psychiatric counselor and walked out as the store’s new owner. In The Last Bookseller Goodman describes his sometimes desperate, sometimes hilarious career as a used and rare book dealer in Minnesota—the early struggles, the travels to estate sales and book fairs, the remarkable finds, and the bibliophiles, forgers, book thieves, and book hoarders he met along the way. Here we meet the infamous St. Paul Book Bandit, Stephen Blumberg, who stole 24,000 rare books worth more than fifty million dollars; John Jenkins, the Texas rare book dealer who (probably) was murdered while standing in the middle of the Colorado River; and the eccentric Melvin McCosh, who filled his dilapidated Lake Minnetonka mansion with half a million books. In 1990, with a couple of partners, Goodman opened St. Croix Antiquarian Books in Stillwater, one of the Twin Cities region’s most venerable bookshops until it closed in 2017. This store became so successful and inspired so many other booksellers to move to town that Richard Booth, founder of the “book town” movement in Hay-on-Wye in Wales, declared Stillwater the First Book Town in North America. The internet changed the book business forever, and Goodman details how, after 2000, the internet made stores like his obsolete. In the 1990s, the Twin Cities had nearly fifty secondhand bookshops; today, there are fewer than ten. As both a memoir and a history of booksellers and book scouts, criminals and collectors, The Last Bookseller offers an ultimately poignant account of the used and rare book business during its final Golden Age. Trade Review "The Last Bookseller is a readable and witty book that offers an insider’s account of a vital, disappearing trade. Packed with wry observations of colorful personalities, Gary Goodman not only captures an important moment in antiquarian book history—when a small river town in Minnesota becomes North America’s first ‘Book Town’—but also asks hard questions about what has been lost in the wake of new technology. At turns poignant, sharp, and laugh-out-loud funny, this memoir walks the fine line between being informative and wildly entertaining. Goodman offers a historical record of the book trade as well as preserving the untold stories of the men and women who made a living by selling words. Opening this book is like stepping into an old bookstore: wonders are around every corner."—Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and In the Shadow of Dora "The Last Bookseller is an extraordinary new book, a beautifully written firsthand account of the adventures of a man who was a mover and shaker in the book business for nearly half a century . . . a sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant portrait of the larger-than-life characters, including the author himself, who dominated the world of books when books were sold by warm-blooded human beings instead of by soulless robots and a few mouse clicks. The Last Bookseller will be high on the must-read list of book lovers everywhere."—Mark Ziegler, author of Wordsongs "The Last Bookseller is the story of a dying breed—the traveling rare book dealers who roamed the earth at the end of the twentieth century. I knew Gary Goodman when he was selling books from a hole-in-the-wall bookstore in East St. Paul in the early 1980s. He went on to become one of the premier booksellers in the Midwest. In witty, unvarnished prose he describes what the book business was like before the internet drove the last booksellers to near extinction. This is a story that needed to be told."—Paul “The General” Kisselburg, Kisselburg Military Books "A well-written, engaging, educational inside account by an experienced bookseller of the contemporary antiquarian book business. Told with insight, analysis, and humor by one who survived the experience."—Steve Anderson, Ross & Haines Old Books "Luckily for readers, Gary Goodman tells his story with sardonic wit and good humor. The Dickensian parade of characters in this book world makes for delightful reading. Goodman’s journey from his Arcade Street shop in 1982 to the Stillwater Book Town several decades later traverses continents and centuries of a living (and dying) book trade. A great read!"—Lynne Murphy, Valley Bookseller "Gary Goodman, a true bookman in every sense, offers us a long-awaited memoir of the rich antiquarian bookselling tradition in the Midwest. The Last Bookseller is a delightful, behind-the-scenes account of his resolute pursuit of rare books and the building of one of the great bookstores in the region. And while there is much to lament about the decline of fine secondhand bookshops, Goodman’s influence can still be found in those booksellers who strive to emulate his passion, integrity, and professionalism. Essential reading for anyone who has enjoyed the pleasures of a fine secondhand bookshop!"—Judith Kissner, Scout & Morgan Books "A memoir from one of the last ‘hunter-gatherers in the book business.’ Goodman has all the requisite irascibility for a bookseller . . . lots of fun anecdotes about book thieves, bibliomaniacs, and other familiars of the book business."—Kirkus Reviews "Highly recommended, partly for Goodman's portrait of a lost world, but also for its colorful dramatis personae."—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "His wry and relatable chronicle of the trials and tribulations of an antiquarian bookseller in the Midwest as he builds an empire—or close enough, North America’s first book town—in Stillwater, Minnesota, is a worthy addition to the genre of ‘Golden Age’ booksellers’ memoirs. "—Fine Books Magazine "A swashbuckling tale of thieves and forgers, a man who would be king, celebrities and the never-ending search for gold—in this case, books, rare ones, and the lengths some will go to acquire them. He tells his tale like a man who has seen a thing or two and lived to tell about it, a story best unwound over a beer in the corner of a dive bar. . . [a] treasure trove of a memoir."—Star Tribune "For a chronicle of one of the late, great used book dealers, look no further than Gary Goodman's The Last Bookseller: A Life in the Rare Book Trade"—Minnesota Alumni "A wry, unvarnished chronicle of a career in the rare book trade during its last Golden Age."—Access Press "A desperate yet hilarious account of a career as a used and rare book dealer in Minnesota."—The New Indian Express "Poignant on the slow death of the independent bookshop, genially bemused by customers’ foibles, excited by rare finds and understandably grumpy about the depredations of the internet."—Times Literary Supplement Table of Contents Contents Introduction 1. Four Thousand Bad Books 2. Book Scouts and Dead Booksellers 3. Billions of Books 4. All for the Want of a Book 5. A Book Fair with the General 6. Bookman’s Alley and McCosh’s Mansion 7. Beating the Bushes 8. A Bookstore in Stillwater 9. Hoarding and Horse Barns 10. Travels to Book Towns 11. The King of Hay-on-Wye 12. The Mormon and the Map Thief 13. North America’s First Book Town 14. The Book Collectors 15. The Stillwater Booktown Times 16. The Beginning of the End 17. Survival Tactics Epilogue Appendix: Travel Journal Acknowledgments Bibliography
£12.34
Fordham University Press Midnight Rambles: H. P. Lovecraft in Gotham
Book SynopsisA micro-biography of horror fiction’s most influential author and his love–hate relationship with New York City. By the end of his life and near financial ruin, pulp horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft resigned himself to the likelihood that his writing would be forgotten. Today, Lovecraft stands alongside J. R. R. Tolkien as the most influential genre writer of the twentieth century. His reputation as an unreformed racist and bigot, however, leaves readers to grapple with his legacy. Midnight Rambles explores Lovecraft’s time in New York City, a crucial yet often overlooked chapter in his life that shaped his literary career and the inextricable racism in his work. Initially, New York stood as a place of liberation for Lovecraft. During the brief period between 1924 and 1926 when he lived there, Lovecraft joined a creative community and experimented with bohemian living in the publishing and cultural capital of the United States. He also married fellow writer Sonia H. Greene, a Ukrainian-Jewish émigré in the fashion industry. However, cascading personal setbacks and his own professional ineptitude soured him on New York. As Lovecraft became more frustrated, his xenophobia and racism became more pronounced. New York’s large immigrant population and minority communities disgusted him, and this mindset soon became evident in his writing. Many of his stories from this era are infused with racial and ethnic stereotypes and nativist themes, most notably his overtly racist short story, “The Horror at Red Hook,” set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. His personal letters reveal an even darker bigotry. Author David J. Goodwin presents a chronological micro-biography of Lovecraft’s New York years, emphasizing Lovecraft’s exploration of the city environment, the greater metropolitan region, and other locales and how they molded him as a writer and as an individual. Drawing from primary sources (letters, memoirs, and published personal reflections) and secondary sources (biographies and scholarship), Midnight Rambles develops a portrait of a talented and troubled author and offers insights into his unsettling beliefs on race, ethnicity, and immigration.Table of ContentsIntroduction: “Age Brings Reminiscences” | 1 1 “A Person of the Most Admirable Qualities” | 17 2 “An Eastern City of Wonder” | 32 3 “It Is a Myth; A Dream” | 51 4 “Brigham Young Annexing His 27th” | 67 5 “The Somewhat Disastrous Collapse” | 80 6 “A Maze of Poverty & Uncertainty” | 96 7 “A Pleasing Hermitage” | 114 8 “Circle of Aesthetic Dilettante” | 131 9 “Long Live the State of Rhode- Island” | 154 Conclusion: “The Merest Vague Dream” | 169 Acknowledgments | 181 Notes | 185 Bibliography | 251 Index | 269
£23.39
Fordham University Press Flannery OConnors Manhattan
Book SynopsisThis book offers a unique twist to the Who's Who of midcentury writers, editors, and artistsMuch is made of Flannery O'Connor's life on the Georgia dairy farm, Andalusiaa rural setting that clearly influenced her writing. But before she lived on that farm, before she showed signs of having lupus, before she became dependent on her mother and then succumbed to the disease at thirty-nine, O'Connor lived in the northeast. She stayed at the artists' colony Yaddo in 1948 and early 1949 and lived in Connecticut with good friends from fall of 1949 through all of 1950. But in between those experiences, and perhaps more importantly, O'Connor lived in Manhattan.In her biographies, little is said of her time in Gotham; in some sources, this period gets no more than one sentence. But little is said because little has been known. In Flannery O'Connor's Manhattan, the author's goal is to explore New York City from O'Connor's point of view. To do this, the author consults
£78.30
Fordham University Press Flannery OConnors Manhattan
Book SynopsisThis book offers a unique twist to the Who's Who of midcentury writers, editors, and artistsMuch is made of Flannery O'Connor's life on the Georgia dairy farm, Andalusiaa rural setting that clearly influenced her writing. But before she lived on that farm, before she showed signs of having lupus, before she became dependent on her mother and then succumbed to the disease at thirty-nine, O'Connor lived in the northeast. She stayed at the artists' colony Yaddo in 1948 and early 1949 and lived in Connecticut with good friends from fall of 1949 through all of 1950. But in between those experiences, and perhaps more importantly, O'Connor lived in Manhattan.In her biographies, little is said of her time in Gotham; in some sources, this period gets no more than one sentence. But little is said because little has been known. In Flannery O'Connor's Manhattan, the author's goal is to explore New York City from O'Connor's point of view. To do this, the author consults
£21.59
University of Calgary Press Reading Alice Munro, 1973-2013
Book SynopsisIn Reading Alice Munro, 1973-2013, the world's leading Munro scholar offers a critical overview of Alice Munro and her writing spanning forty years. Beginning with a newly written overarching introduction, featuring directive interleaved commentaries addressing chronology and contexts, ending with encompassing afterword, this collection provides a selection of essays and reviews that reflect their times and tell the story of Munro's emergence and recognition as an internationally acclaimed writer since the 1970s.Acknowledging her beginnings and her persistence as a writer of increasingly exceptional short stories, and just short stories, it treats her career through Thacker's criticism up to her fourteenth collection, Dear Life (2012), and to the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Altogether, this book encompasses the whole trajectory of Munro's critical presence while offering a singularly informed retrospective perspective.Trade Review"Reading Alice Munro, 19732013 brings together 16 essays written over four decades and it aims to track a perpetually deepening fascination with Munros writing, and because of that writing and its effects, with her life and the trajectory of her writing career (p. 4). Thacker introduces us to Munro and to Munro criticism and, in so doing, define[s] her emergence and contextualise[s] that emergence within Canadian literature during the last decades of the previous century and the first years of the current one (p. 18). Reading Alice Munro, 19732013 epitomizes the value of scholarly dedication and of single-author studies: Thackers own is a source of considerable inspiration and it is doubly refreshing to see how his voice grew even as Munros did. The critical reflection, a mode that Thacker employed to great effect in both the books introduction and afterword, makesan especially strong case for archival research." - Tom Ue, University of Toronto Scarborough, British Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 30, Issue 2.We have here a retrospective not only of a critical writer but also of a reader - perhaps Munroeâs most public readerâ| Throughout forty years and more, Thacker has devoted the greater share of his career to the study of Munroeâs writingâ| [This] is, in effect, a reassessment of a scholarly life - a professional autobiography in critical essays and reviews - devoted to a writer whose persistent concern was the act of reassessment. - Lorraine York, Canadian LiteratureThacker is distinguished among Munroe critics . . . a valuable scholarly resource. - Sara Jamieson, University of Toronto Quarterly
£26.96
Wilfrid Laurier University Press The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836-1945
Book SynopsisMany Canadian women fiction writers have become justifiably famous. But what about women who have written non-fiction? When Anne Innis Dagg set out on a personal quest to make such non-fiction authors better known, she expected to find just a few dozen. To her delight, she unearthed 473 writers who have produced over 674 books. These women describe not only their country and its inhabitants, but a remarkable variety of other subjects: from the story of transportation to the legacy of Canadian missionary activity around the world. While most of the writers lived in what is now Canada, other authors were British or American travellers who visited Canada throughout the years and reported on what they found here. This compendium has brief biographies of all these women, short descriptions of their books, and a comprehensive index of their books' subject matters. The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836-1945 will be an invaluable research tool for women's studies and for all who wish to supplement the male gaze on Canada's past.
£30.56
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Oscar Wilde in the 1990s: The Critic as Creator
Book SynopsisAn examination of the most significant literary criticism on Wilde at the turn of the century. In 1891, Oscar Wilde defined 'the highest criticism' as 'the record of one's own soul, and insisted that only by 'intensifying his own personality' could the critic interpret the personality and work of others. This book exploreswhat Wilde meant by that statement, arguing that it provides the best standard for judging literary criticism about Wilde a century after his death. Melissa Knox examines a range of Wilde criticism in English -- including the work of Lawrence Danson, Michael Patrick Gillespie, Ed Cohen, and Julia Prewitt Brown. Applying Wilde's standards to his critics, Knox discovers that the best of them take to heart Wilde's idea of the aim of criticism -- 'to see theobject as in itself it really is not.' By this, Wilde appreciates Walter Pater's profound observation that everyone sees through a 'thick wall of personality' and that, therefore, objectivity as conceived by Matthew Arnold does not exist. Admiring Pater, Wilde became a prophet for Freud, his exact contemporary. Their intellectual sympathies, made obvious in Knox's exegesis, help to make the case for Wilde as a modern, not a Victorian. Melissa Knox's book Oscar Wilde: A Long and Lovely Suicide was published in 1994. She teaches at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.Trade ReviewUseful as a starting-point for the curious reader. * THE WILDEAN *Table of ContentsIntroduction Geistesgeschichte New Historicism Gay, Queer, and Gender Criticism Reader Response Criticism Irish Ethnic Studies and Cultural Criticism Biographic Studies Summary and Future Trends Works Cited Index
£81.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Thoreau's Late Career and The Dispersion of
Book SynopsisThe first detailed study of a major but neglected work by Thoreau. Until very recently, only a handful of Thoreau specialists knew of the existence of 'The Dispersion of Seeds', an ecological treatise written during the last years of Thoreau's life, which has been reconstructed and edited, and was published for the first time in 1993. Thoreau's Late Career and the Dispersion of Seeds, the first full-length study of this important late work by Thoreau, analyzes literary features of 'The Dispersion of Seeds' that make it an accomplished work of the imagination, and applies interdisciplinary scholarship in order to relate Thoreau's prescient ecology to scientific issues of his day and ours. Thus it demonstrates that in his late career Thoreauwas working as scientist and poet simultaneously. Berger further explores how Thoreau managed the philosophical and rhetorical tensions involved in bridging the supposed gap between science and poetry, and how, in his later career, he embraced the empirical method of scientific discovery while challenging the reductive assumptions of scientific materialism. In these specific ways Berger's study advances new understandings of Thoreau's purposes and accomplishments during his post-Walden career. Michael Berger, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English and Communications at The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Cincinnati. He is on the Board of Directors ofThe Thoreau Society.Trade ReviewHis is the first full-length study of [Thoreau's] little known work, The Dispersion of Seeds. * INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENT *Berger has helped further our understanding of the ways in which Thoreau's turn to science gave him a renewed literary vitality. Moreover, he makes an especially important contribution in the precision with which he connects Thoreau's protoecological concepts to the science of ecology as it developed in the 140 years after Thoreau's death. * ISIS *Table of ContentsFrom Walden Pond to Main Street The Saunterer's Vision: Thoreau's Epiphany of Forest Dynamics in The Dispersion of Seeds Seed Dispersal Ecology: Thoreau's Science in The Dispersion of Seeds The Sign of the Scarlet Oak Leaf: Thoreau's Epistemological Meditations in the Late Writings Appendices Works Cited Index
£58.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Margaret Atwood: Works and Impact
Book SynopsisA collection of new essays on the multi-talented Canadian writerMargaret Atwood. Novelist, poet, cultural critic, Margaret Atwood is one of the most fascinating, versatile, and productive authors of our time, a superb writer in any genre she chooses to tackle. This book was prepared on the occasion of Atwood's sixtieth birthday in November 1999. Its first aim is therefore to take stock of Atwood's multifarious works and international impact at the height of her creative powers. Secondly, the book serves as a wide-ranging introduction to the writer and her works. Fifteen informative articles written specifically for this volume by Atwood specialists from Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, and France treat her life and status, her works (up-to-date surveyarticles on Atwood's novels, short fiction, poetry, and literary and cultural criticism), and important approaches to her works (from the standpoints of gender politics, mythology, ecology, popular culture, constructivism, and Canadian nationalism). A final section on creativity, transmission, and reception includes an interview with Atwood on creativity, statements by some of Atwood's important transmitters, including publishers, editors, literaryagents, and translators, and some 15 statements by Atwood's fellow writers, in which they explore her importance for them. A number of photographs of Atwood, several cartoonsdrawn by and about her, an up-to-date bibliography ofworks by and about her, and an index round out the volume. Reingard M. Nischik is Professor of American literature at the University of Konstanz, Germany.Trade ReviewWinner of the Best Book Award of the Margaret Atwood Society, 1999/2000. * . *Represents the best collective Atwood criticism that I have seen for years. * NEWSLETTER OF THE MARGARET ATWOOD SOCIETY *Presents a superb overview of Canada's most famous living author. * CHOICE *An impressive international list of contributors... * STUDIES IN THE NOVEL *Provides a positive example of cross-national scholarly collaboration and includes the perspective of the literary publishing world. * ZEITSCHRIFT FUER KANADA-STUDIEN *Succeeds in presenting an accessible and comprehensive introduction to Atwood's works and her critical contexts. * CANADIAN LITERATURE *An extremely valuable research tool and a magnificent hommage to an equally magnificent writer. * ETUDES CANADIENNES/CANADIAN STUDIES *An excellent volume...an important enrichment of Atwood scholarship. * ANGLISTIK *... serious critical work from some of the most substantial contemporary Atwood scholars. * EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES *An invaluable resource, well organised and beautifully presented. * BRITISH JOURNAL OF CANADIAN STUDIES *[T]he volume [has] that special something, not least in the particular and in this context exclusively positive kind of hybridity that makes it the ideal medium for the representation of Margaret Atwood in all her facets. The unique structure of the volume and its high scholarly standards along with the simultaneous inclusion of very personal glimpses at the life and work of the author make [it] a book with enough breadth and depth to stand out among the countless books on Atwood. * GERMANISCH-ROMANISCHE MONATSSCHRIFT *Table of ContentsPart I Life and status. Part II Works. Part III Approaches. Part IV Creativity, transmission, reception. Cartoons by and on Margaret Atwood.
£27.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Goethe Yearbook 15
Book SynopsisNew, interdisciplinary essays on an array of topics ranging from Goethe and mineralogy to theories of masculinity around 1800. The Goethe Yearbook, first published in 1982, is a publication of the Goethe Society of North America and is dedicated to North American Goethe Scholarship. It aims above all to encourage and publish original English-language contributions to the understanding of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit, while also welcoming contributions from scholars around the world. Goethe Yearbook 15 features an array of interdisciplinary essays,among them articles on Goethe and such topics as architecture, mineralogy, theatrical improvisation, and Ulrich von Hutten. Readers will also find two astute and erudite interpretations of key poems, Alexis und Dora and Urworte. Orphisch, as well as a compelling exploration of the legal, social, and economic issues pertaining to the question: "Why Did Goethe Marry When He Did?" An interpretation of Goethe's Elective Affinities, two essays on Schiller's plays, and an incisive analysis by Peter Uwe Hohendahl titled "The New Man: Theories of Masculinity Around 1800" round out the volume. Contributors: Ehrhard Bahr, Yasser Derwiche Djazaerly, Robert Germany, Albert E. Gurganus, Peter Uwe Hohendahl, Jocelyn Hollnad, Borge Kristiansen, Elizabeth Powers, Daniel Purdy, Peter J. Schwartz, and Christoph Schweitzer Simon J. Richter is Professor of German at the University ofPennsylvania, and Daniel Purdy is Associate Professor of German at Pennsylvania State University. Book review editor Martha B. Helfer is Professor of German at Rutgers University.Trade Review[This volume] yet again establishes the journal as an outstanding venue for current scholarship on Goethe, Schiller, and German culture around 1800. . . . [E]xceptional individual studies providing noteworthy insights into several key questions of Goethe scholarship. Yet it is in the juxtaposition of the various articles, and the thereby divergent . . . views that they present, where one finds some of the most extraordinary insights. . . . It's a volume well worth reading in its entirety. * THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CURRENT BIBLIOGRAPHY *Table of ContentsGoethe's Reception of Ulrich von Hutten - Yasser Derwiche Djazaerly The School of Shipwrecks: Improvisation in Wilhelm Meisters theatrilische Sendung and the Lehrjahre - Jocelyn Holland The Sublime, "Über den Granit," and the Prehistory of Goethe's Science - Elizabeth Powers The Building in Bildung: Goethe, Palladio, and the Architectural Media - Daniel Purdy Virgilian Retrospection in Goethe's Alexis und Dora - Robert Germany Typologies of Repetition, Reflection, and Recurrence: Interpreting the Novella in Goethe's Wahlverwandtschaften - Albert E Gurganus Why Did Goethe Marry When He Did? - Peter J. Schwartz Zum Verhältnis von Selbstsein und Miteinandersein - Borge Kristiansen Schiller's Die Räuber: Revenge, Sacrifice, and the Terrible Price of Absolute Freedom - Christoph E Schweitzer Wallensteins Tod as a "Play of Mourning": Death and Mourning in the Aesthetics of Schiller's Classicism - Ehrhard Bahr The New Man: Theories of Masculinity around 1800 - Peter Uwe Hohendahl
£67.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Joseph Conrad: A Life
Book SynopsisUp-to-date and extensive revision of Najder's much-acclaimed scholarly biography of Conrad, employing newly accessible sources. Joseph Conrad is not only one of the world's great writers of English -- and world -- literature, but was a writer who lived a particularly full and interesting life. For the biographer this is a double-edged sword, however: thereare many periods for which documentation is uncommonly difficult. Zdzislaw Najder's meticulously documented biography first appeared in English in 1983, garnering high praise as the best, most complete biography of Conrad. Najder's command of English, French, Polish, and Russian allowed him access to a greater variety of sources than any other biographer, and his Polish background and his own experience as an exile have afforded him a unique affinity forConrad and his milieu. All this has come into play once again in the present, extensively revised edition: much of its extensive new material was unearthed in newly-opened former east-bloc archives. There is new material on Conrad's father's genealogy and his role in Polish politics; Conrad's service in the French and British merchant marines; his early English reading and correspondence; his experiences in the Congo; the circumstances of writing his memoirs, and much more. In addition, several aspects of Conrad's life and works are more thoroughly analyzed: his problems with the English language; his borrowings from French writers; his attitude toward socialism, his reaction to the reception of his books. Zdzislaw Najder teaches at the European Academy, Cracow.Trade ReviewThe most scholarly, most comprehensive, as well as the most faithfully Conradian account of the writer's life . Especially with the publication of its new edition . unlikely to be surpassed for a long time to come. * HUNGARIAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES *A great achievement in revealing to us with honesty and compassion a writer of immense moral stature and untiring devotion to his art. * POLISH REVIEW *The revisions ... further strengthen what was already the indispensable biography. They are extensive and substantial, incorporating not only Najder's own discoveries but those by such distinguished scholars as Andrew Busza, J. H. Stape, the late Sylvère Monod, and the late Hans van Marle. --Laurence Davies, University of Glasgow, General Editor of Conrad's Collected Letters * . *A heroic achievement. * THE INDEPENDENT *A portrait of a remarkable human in his native milieu and the story of how he adapted to a very different environment. Najder's Conrad is a man of deep emotions under a mask of circumspection. [Builds] up a detailed portrait of Conrad using every scrap of available information. * LITERARY REVIEW *A pleasure to read. This present edition is a fifth revision and the second published in English. [The author provides] material formerly unavailable. * POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL *When I reviewed the first English edition of this book in 1984, I called it 'the richest and most persuasive portrait of Conrad we have had or will probably ever have.' Happily, however, the author hasn't rested on his laurels. Once again, Professor Najder sets the very highest biographical standard. Everything that has come to light about Conrad during the past quarter-century is now seamlessly integrated into the revised text. Many facts are new, but Najder's perspective remains unchanged -- because, quite simply, he got it exactly right the first time. -- Frederick CrewsNajder's book is a thoroughly updated and revised version of his Conrad biography of 1983...Najder's forte is not only Conrad's Polish background but Conrad's Polish perspective which describes and 'translates' attitudes, mental states as well as cultural norms and values...unfamiliar to non-Polish readers. * ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR ANGLISTIK UND AMERIKANISTIK *Table of ContentsIn the Shadow of Alien Ghosts: 1857-1874 - Zdzislaw Najder In Marseilles: 1874-1878 - Zdzislaw Najder The Red Ensign: 1878-1886 - Zdzislaw Najder Master in the British Merchant Marine: 1886-1890 - Zdzislaw Najder To the End of the Night: 1890 - Zdzislaw Najder The Sail and the Pen: 1891-1894 - Zdzislaw Najder Work and Romance: 1894-1896 - Zdzislaw Najder Strivings, Experiments, Doubts: 1896-1898 - Zdzislaw Najder Ford, the Pent, and Jim: 1898-1900 - Zdzislaw Najder Difficult Maturity: 1900-1904 - Zdzislaw Najder Uphill: 1904-1909 - Zdzislaw Najder Crisis and Success: 1910-1914 - Zdzislaw Najder Journey to Poland: 1914 - Zdzislaw Najder The War and the Memories: 1914-1919 - Zdzislaw Najder Hope and Resignation: 1919-1924 - Zdzislaw Najder
£80.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Heinrich von Kleist and Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
Book SynopsisBy reconsidering Kleist's reception of Rousseau and placing it in historical context, this book sheds new light on a range of political and ethical issues at play in Kleist's work. Heinrich von Kleist is renowned as an author who posed a radical challenge to the orthodoxies of his age. Today, his works are frequently seen to relentlessly deconstruct the paradigms of Idealism and to reflect a Romantic, even postmodern, perspective on the ambiguities of the world. Such a view fails, however, to do full justice to the more complex manner in which Kleist articulates the tensions between the securities of Enlightenment thought and the anxieties of the revolutionary age. Steven Howe offers a new angle on Kleist's dialogue with the Enlightenment by reconsidering his investment in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Where previous critics have trivialized this as intense but fleeting and born of personal identification, Howe here establishes Rousseau's importance as a lasting source of inspiration for the violent constellations of Kleist's fiction. Taking account of both Rousseau'scritique of modernity and his later propositions for working toward the Enlightenment promise of emancipation, the book locates a mode of discourse which, placed in the historical context of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, sheds new light on the political and ethical issues at play in Kleist's work. Steven Howe is Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. He is co-editor, with Ricarda Schmidt and Seán Allan, of Heinrich von Kleist: Konstruktive und Destruktive Funktionen von Gewalt (forthcoming, 2012).Trade ReviewA] fascinating study of Rousseau's seminal influence on Kleist. Although [Kleist's] response to Rousseau and other philosophers has been addressed before . . . no one has treated the subject as thoroughly and with as much aplomb as Howe. . . . [His] contribution is to fill in the literary-historical gaps and to set a standard that will serve as a scholarly reference point for years to come. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Howe's intricately argued and meticulously documented study is an important contribution to reading Kleist in his historical and intellectual element. . . . [Howe's] positions are well considered and weighed carefully against scholarly alternatives, his judgments are nuanced, and the breadth and depth of his reading of Kleist are impressive. An important contribution that will appeal to readers interested in Rousseau and his German reception and the role of ethics and political violence in Kleist. -- Joseph D. O'Neill * GOETHE YEARBOOK *[O]ffers a detailed and rewarding assessment of Kleist's engagement with Rousseau's political and ethical theories. . . . [T]his excellent monograph is to be strongly recommended. Not only does it provide a valuable addition to Kleist scholarship, but it will [also] serve as an invaluable reference point for scholars working more generally on German literature and culture around 1800. -- Ernest Schonfield * ORBIS LITTERARUM *[Howe] sets out moments in Rousseau . . . that address the different problems raised [in the works of Kleist he examines] and makes his own judicious contribution . . . . The results . . . are all the more valuable for being carefully grounded in evidence and not over-stated. . . . [A]cademically impeccable and grounded in a really impressive grasp of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century political and moral thought. -- Michael Minden * JOURNAL FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES *Howe's readings prove an impressive attempt at sharpening the analytical depth and accuracy of Kleist's engagement with Rousseau's philosophy. -- Sarah Wilewski * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Interpreting Kleist's Paradoxes Kleist, Rousseau, and the Paradoxes of Enlightenment Das Erdbeben in Chili Die Verlobung in St. Domingo Die Herrmannsschlacht Prinz Friedrich von Homburg Conclusion
£81.00
University of North Texas Press Robert E. Howard
Book Synopsis
£28.80
University Press of Mississippi Katherine Anne Porter: The Life of an Artist
Book SynopsisFrom the moment Katherine Anne Porter arrived on the American literary scene in 1922, the public was intrigued with her life. Yet she herself revealed only scant facts of her background and often gave conflicting accounts. She maintained, though, that a germ of her own experience lay at the core of everything she wrote. In Katherine Anne Porter: The Life of an Artist, Darlene Harbour Unrue finds that Porter's deceptions were a screen for deep personal turmoil. With unprecedented access to archival and personal papers, Unrue brings much new information to light. Porter's maternal grandmother was institutionalized; Porter had more marriages than she acknowledged; she lost babies to miscarriage, abortion, and stillbirth, and she grieved over her failed motherhood. Ever present were her fears of exile and insanity. Despite these constant fears, Porter (1890-1980) lived an extraordinary life that vaulted her from poverty and obscurity to wealth and the fame of being a best-selling author. She experienced or observed many of the major events of the twentieth century. So often on the move, she lived in Greenwich Village during its heyday as a hotbed of radical politics and experimental art, in Mexico during the cultural revolution of the 1920s, in Europe during the rise of Nazism, and in America during the Cold War. Thirteen years old when she first rode in an automobile and saw an airplane, she was invited in her last decade to observe and write about the launching of the final Apollo space ship. Asked to summarize her own life, Porter was fond of quoting Madame Du Barry: ""My life has been incredible. I don't believe a word of it!"" Darlene Harbour Unrue is a professor of English at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. She has written several books on Katherine Anne Porter, including Understanding Katherine Anne Porter and Truth and Vision in Katherine Anne Porter's Fiction.
£31.46
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Scandal and Survival in Nineteenth-Century
Book SynopsisUncovers the life of Jane Cumming, who scandalized her contemporaries with tales of sexual deviancy but also defied cultural norms, standing up to male authority figures and showing resilience. In 1810 Edinburgh, the orphaned Scottish-Indian schoolgirl Jane Cumming alleged that her two schoolmistresses were sexually intimate. The allegation spawned a defamation suit that pitted Jane's grandmother, a member of the Scottish landed gentry, against two young professional women who were romantic friends. During the trial, the boundary between passion and friendship among women was debated and Jane was viewed "orientally," as morally corrupt and hypersexual. Located at the intersection of race, sex, and class, the case has long been a lightning rod for scholars of cultural studies, women's and gender history, and, given Lillian Hellman's appropriation of Jane's story in her 1934 play The Children's Hour, theater history as well. Frances B. Singh's wide-ranging biography, however, takes a new, psychological approach, putting the notorious case in the context of a life that was marked by loss, separation, abandonment--and resilience. Grounded in archival and genealogical sources never before consulted, Singh's narrative reconstructs Cumming's life from its inauspicious beginnings in a Calcutta orphanage through her schooling in Elgin and Edinburgh, an abusive marriage, her adherence to the Free Church at the time of the Scottish Disruption, and her posthumous life in Hellman's Broadway play. Singh provides a detailed analysis not only of the case itself, but of how both Jane's and her teachers' lives were affected in the aftermath.Trade Review[Makes] an important contribution to unveiling the complicated relationship that involves racial, gender/sexual, and class prejudice in nineteenth-century Scotland. * BAVS NEWSLETTER *A welcome addition to histories of modern sexuality in Scotland, a field in which significant lacunae remain. * INNES REVIEW *A pacy highly readable and detailed account of the fascinating life of a young Indian-Scottish woman. * HISTORY SCOTLAND *This book is one of the first monographs to grapple with the history of Indian-Scottish children and in its rich research begins to open up the experiences of such children and to ask what happened to them when they were placed in Scottish society. In this, it offers an important starting point for what shall no doubt become a larger conversation. * English Historical Review *Singh's lively conference presentations . . . have prompted many of us to express hope that she would offer us a deeper dive into the influences around and within the life of a woman who embodies the figure of an outsider in many ways . . . The result is a many-faceted examination of not just Cumming and her extended family, but the eighteenth century as a whole. -- Susan Spencer, University of Oklahoma * Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer *Scandal and Survival is a timely and interesting contribution to the literature on the ways that concepts of race and sexuality shaped the lives of early 19th-century women. The use of recent sociological work on the experience of international adoptions adds a compelling frame to the treatment of Jane Cumming's experience. * Pam Perkins, University of Manitoba *Frances Singh's new biography brilliantly narrates each dramatic turn in this serpentine saga, giving perhaps the most detailed and thorough account yet of Cumming's extraordinary life. . . . Singh's thorough scholarship makes an important contribution to that effort and reveals an early modern world that bears some astonishing similarities to the present. * 1650–1850 Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Placing Jane Ante Jane Educating Jane (1) Educating Jane (2) Jane and the Lords of the Law (1) Jane and the Lords of the Law (2) Jane and William Tulloch Jane, Posthumously Conclusion: Assessing Jane Acknowledgments Appendix A: Marianne Woods, Jane Pirie and Romantic Friendship Appendix B: What Really Happened to Miss Marianne Woods and Miss Jane Pirie? Appendix C: Corinna: A Ballad Appendix D: Richard Rose's letter Written from the Manse of Kinnedar dated January 12, 1835 Appendix E: Jane's letter Written from the Dallas Manse dated 15 February 1836 to Sir William regarding wood stealing at Dallas Works Cited
£26.34
St Augustine's Press The Age of Nightmare
Book SynopsisHistorian Jeremy Black is comprehensive, as ever, but in his treatment of the British Gothic novel his greatest service is the preservation of the detail––namely, the human impetus behind art that is often undervalued. Gothic novelists were purposeful, thoughtful, and engaged questions and feelings that ultimately shaped a century of culture. Black notes that the Gothic novel is also very much about "morality and deploying history accordingly." The true interest of the Gothic novel is more remarkable than it is grisly: the featured darkness and macabre are not meant to usurp heroism and purity, but will fall hard under the over-ruling hand of Providence and certainty of retribution. Black's understanding of the Gothic writer is a remarkable contribution to the legacy of British literature and the novel at large. Once again, in Black thoroughness meets fidelity and the reader is overcome with his own insights into the period on the merit of Black's efforts. In The Weight of Words Series, Black is devoted to the preservation of the memory of British literary genius, and in so doing he is carving out a niche for himself. As in the Gothic novel where landscapes give quarter to influences that seem to interact with the human fates that freely wander in, reading Black is an experience of suddenly finding oneself in possession of an education, and his allure takes a cue from the horrific Gothic tempt.
£68.40
St Augustine's Press Defoe`s Britain
Book Synopsis"This book fits into a sequence of books I have written in which writers are used to throw light on their times, and vice versa, a sequence beginning with Fleming, Shakespeare and Austen, and continuing with Dickens, Christie, Doyle, Fielding, Smollett and the Gothic novelists. I have found the approach a fascinating one, not least in leading me to re-read much from earlier years. […] This study is not a biography, in whole or part, of Defoe. […] Instead of biography, we have here a study of Britain in the Age of Defoe, a work intended to throw light on his life and to benefit from a close reading of his works, but also to stand on its own separate to an engagement with the author himself. The range of Defoe’s interest and the extent of his writings would make the latter a different task, as indeed any attempt to offer an easy coherence to personality, career and works. Yet, Defoe can be approached as a traveller, both literally so, and in his interests and imagination. […] In his range of interests, vigorous engagement with life and issues, often polemical content and style, and willingness to engage with low life, Defoe prefigures Tobias Smollett, another writer covered in this series and, to a lesser extent, Henry Fielding, who can be more ‘polite.’ Defoe was an outsider, as Smollett was to be, but as Fielding certainly was not. ‘One whose business is observation,’ Defoe’s description of himself in his Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–6), captured, however, a pose as well as a reality, for he had values aplenty to offer. As a writer, Defoe brought together a reality usually presented as, and endorsed by, history, with the imaginative focus of storytelling, and the direction of, variously, propaganda, analysis, and exemplary tale." — Taken from the Preface
£68.40
