Published diaries, letters and journals Books

Book SynopsisAn exciting new volume of letters about the Capital of the World--from George Washington, Kahlil Gibran, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Scorsese, and more--from the author of the bestselling Letters of Note collectionsPeter Schagen writes to the Dutch West India Company about the purchase of Manhattes. Mayor Ambrose Kingsland urges the city council to create what became Central Park. E. B. White bemoans taxi cab design to Harold Ross, cofounder of The New Yorker. Bianca Jagger sets the record straight about that white horse in Studio 54. New York City goes by many names--Gotham, Empire City, the City That Never Sleeps--and once served as the capital of America. It came together as we know it in 1898 and has become one of the world's most powerful, most important megacities, shaping art, culture, finance, and media across the globe. This iconic collection of thirty letters smartly explores the history of life in the five boroughs. You'll need more than a New York mi

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Book SynopsisA fascinating new volume of messages about motherhood, from the author of the bestselling Letters of Note collections. In Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun Usher gathers together exceptional missives by and about mothers, celebrating the joy and grief, humour and frustration, wisdom and sacrifice the role brings to both parent and child.A young Egyptian girl mourns her mother's death in the fourth century AD. Melissa Rivers lovingly chides her mother, Joan, for treating her house like a hotel and taking her thirteen-year-old son to see Last Tango in Paris. Anne Sexton gives her daughter the advice to live life to the hilt, and be your own woman. In a letter to her teenage daughter, Caitlin Moran explains that some boys are as evil as vampires, and you must drive stakes through their hearts. The film Ladybird inspires journalist Hannah Woodhead to write an emotional letter to her mother. While at seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. writes that he ha

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Book SynopsisIn this wickedly funny and irreverent memoir, Chelsea Lately writer and comedian Sarah Colonna opens up about love, life, and pursuing her dreams . . . and then screwing it all up.   Sarah believes we all struggle to grow up. Sometimes we want to have fun, not take things too seriously, and have that fourth margarita. Other times we would like to get married, stay in, order Chinese food, and have a responsible, secure life.   From her formative years in small-town Arkansas to a later career of dates, drinks, and questionable day jobs, Colonna attempts to reconcile her responsible side with her fun-loving side. Sometimes this pans out, and sometimes she finds herself in Mexico handing out her phone number to anyone who calls her pretty. She moves to Los Angeles to pursue acting, but for years is forced to hone her bartending skills; she wants a serious boyfriend, but won’t give up nights at the bar with her friends. She tries to behave l

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Book SynopsisI'm scared and scarred but I’ve survived   Tom Wilson was raised in the rough-and-tumble world of Hamilton—Steeltown— in the company of World War II vets, factory workers, fall-guy wrestlers and the deeply guarded secrets kept by his parents, Bunny and George. For decades Tom carved out a life for himself in shadows. He built an international music career and became a father, he battled demons and addiction, and he waited, hoping for the lies to cease and the truth to emerge. It would. And when it did, it would sweep up the St. Lawrence River to the Mohawk reserves of Quebec, on to the heights of the Manhattan skyline.     With a rare gift for storytelling and an astonishing story to tell, Tom writes with unflinching honesty and extraordinary compassion about his search for the truth. It's a story about scars, about the ones that hurt us, and the ones that make us who we are.   From Beautiful Scars:

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Book SynopsisA monumental work of history that captures the last days of the Third Reich as never before.Trade Review"An emotionally immediate and multi-faceted perspective of the last days of the Third Reich… No mere anthology but an artful collage… Difficult to put down." -- Gerald Steinacher - Wall Street Journal"A disturbing but compulsively readable slice of history." -- Christian Science Monitor"From the absurd to the sublime, and everywhere heartbreaking: a collage of voices from the tail end of the world's conflagration.… Raw [and] tremendously moving… Riveting." -- Kirkus (starred review)"This is a book that can be read comfortably only page by page. Otherwise it will break your heart." -- Bill Marvel - Dallas Morning News"Riveting… Kempowski's careful selection and sequencing convey the horror, misery, irony, and intensity of living through the last month of war in Germany. The work is noteworthy not just for its unique first-person perspective, but also for its breadth and depth… Essential." -- Publishers Weekly"A treasure… [Swansong 1945] offer[s] powerful glimpses into otherwise lost history… The collection is a kaleidoscope of voices, revealing struggle of all kinds." -- Sarah Grant - Booklist (starred review)"The power of [Swansong 1945] comes from the great variety and volume of the personal accounts, many of them eloquent and moving… This important book takes us beyond geography, statistics and battles and reveals the cost of war in very human terms." -- Roger Bishop - BookPage"A unique and haunting insight into what it was like to live through the violent twilight of the Third Reich. Indispensable and, above all, unforgettable." -- Frederick Taylor, author of Dresden"A remarkable collage of experiences and impressions of the catastrophic last days of the Second World War, which provides a unique panorama of the war and a very powerful impression of its impact on and the responses of those involved." -- Jeremy Noakes, author of Nazism 1919-1945"A bewitching, dramatic, utterly extraordinary range of voices and eyewitness testimony as Europe entered its year-zero moment." -- David Kynaston, author of Austerity Britain"A rare combination of aesthetic and historic truths… What gives Kempowski’s work its reach and humanity is his keen eye for both the sensory experience of war at its most destructive and individuals’ compulsion to go on making sense of it as it engulfed them." -- Nicholas Stargardt, author of Witnesses of War"Amidst the fascinating multitude of voices assembled here the one that speaks most powerfully is that of Kempowski himself. This is a remarkable document of one person’s lifelong struggle to make sense of national collapse." -- Neil Gregor, author of Haunted City"Kempowski is a master of form and proportion… The end of the war has never before been depicted like this." -- Volker Hage, author of Hamburg 1943

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Book Synopsis“What a feast. Diana’s work compels me. . . . She’s got her teeth into life!”—Alice MunroTrade Review"Many writers can be admired for their lyricism, their powers of imagination and their incisive wit. But there’s only one I can think of who inspires a way to live life: Diana Athill." -- Elizabeth Taylor - Chicago Tribune"“[T]renchant and engaging . . . often hilarious." -- Bill Eichenberger - Cleveland Plain Dealer"Diana Athill is perhaps best known for her memoir Somewhere Towards the End, but Letters to a Friend could eclipse it. ... Each letter is an unalloyed delight; articulate to the point of eloquence, and candid, even about the naughty bits. . . . [E]very letter in Letters to a Friend is a small masterpiece; chatty, companionable and very, very intelligent." -- Valerie Ryan - Shelf Awareness

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Book SynopsisThis fourth volume covers the period which was probably the most varied of Newton's whole career. The Principia had already established Newton as the world's foremost mathematician and natural philosopher. In spite of the abstruse nature of the mathematical treatment adopted in its pages, the first edition was rapidly exhausted and, within a very few years, Newton was being urged to consider the preparation of the second edition. This was to contain, inter alia, his further researches upon the motion of the Moon, the solar system, and the behaviour of the comets. Not until 1694, however, did his thoughts upon this project assume definite shape. To carry out his plan, he had need of the most accurate observations available, and for these he turned to the Observatory at Greenwich, where John Flamsteed had been installed as King's Astronomer. So came about that close association between the two men which was to last for many years, though not without frequent interruptions.Table of ContentsList of Plates; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introductory Note on the Lunar Theory; The Correspondence.

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Book SynopsisIn this seventh and final volume the letters are divided into two quite distinct groups. The first group begins with the remaining letters of the main chronological sequence written during the closing years of Newton's life, and then proceeds to those few letters to which there is no assignable date with any certainty. The second group of letters, placed in Appendix I, contains corrections and additions to the letters printed in the earlier volumes of the Correspondence. A genealogical table is added to Appendix II to help the reader through the intricacies of Newton's family tree. Even after the creative power of his genius had deserted him, Newton retained to the very end of his long life the characteristic clarity of his thought. Few of Newton's letters in this volume may justly be described as scientific. The relative inactivity of the Mint meant that, although he apparently delegated few of his responsibilities to others, Newton's concerns there were no onerous. Thus it is not surTable of ContentsList of Plates; Preface; Short Titles and Abbreviations; Introduction; The Correspondence.

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Book SynopsisThis first volume is particularly rich in matters of concern to the historian of science. It shows the young Newton in the plenitude of his powers; he himself wrote of the period at Woolsthorpe, which ended before any surviving letters of real consequence were written.Table of ContentsList of Plates; Foreword; Introduction; Preface; The Correspondence.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first publication of the complete surviving journals of the great Victorian novelist. A new George Eliot text, and the closest she came to autobiography, it reveals both professional writer and private woman. Chronology, introduction, headnotes to each diary, and annotated index supply valuable contextual and explanatory information.Trade Review'The editors of this volume have done their work with admirable tact and persistence.' Terry Eagleton, The Independent on Sunday'This volume forms a valuable addition to Eliot scholarship … Margaret Harris and Judith Johnston have produced a definintive work for future generations of Eliot enthusiasts and scholars.' Sally Shuttleworth, The Times Literary Supplement'The editors, who have produced a masterly piece of work, have included a chronology, excellent notes and a most valuable 'explanatory index.' The Contemporary Review'Unshrouded by prejudices and the various agendas of biographers, these abridged texts provide fascinating direct access to the author. The unobtrusive editing is suffciently informative without being overwhelming …'. Charlotte Cory, The Independent'… a great contribution to scholarship … a remarkable book for which biographers, critics and readers must be grateful and by which they should be enlightened.' Barbara Hardy, The George Eliot Review'This is a most valuable book, boon for those who wish to learn more about the remarkable woman who gave us, among others, The Mill on the Floss, Romola and Middlemarch.' Canberra Times' [A] beautifully edited and designed work … the pleasures it offers to the reader of George Eliot are manifold … It is a work long needed. That it is interpretatively, textually, and typographically so well done makes it worth the wait.' Carol A. Martin, Boise State University'… the real merit of this book is that it opens a whole field of these quietly resonating details, committed to the privacy of Eliot's treasured and closely guarded notebooks from 1854 to a few months before her death.' Mark Wormald, The Review of English StudiesTable of ContentsList of abbreviations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Introduction; 1. Diary 1854–61: (i) Weimar, 20 July–3 November 1854; (ii) Berlin, 3 November 1854–March 1855; (iii) England, March 1855–19 June 1861; 2. Diary 1861–77; 3. Diary 1879; 4. Diary 1880; 5. Recollections of Weimar, 1854; 6. Recollections of Berlin, 1854–5; 7. Recollections of Ilfracombe, 1856; 8. Recollections of the Scilly Isles and Jersey, 1857; 9. The Making of George Eliot, 1857–9; 10. Germany, 1858; 11. Recollections of Italy, 1860; 12. Italy, 1864; 13. Normandy and Brittany, 1865; Explanatory index.

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Book SynopsisThe letters written by Samuel Beckett between 1929 and 1940 provide a vivid and personal view of Western Europe in the 1930s, and mark the gradual emergence of Beckett's unique voice and sensibility. The Cambridge University Press edition of The Letters of Samuel Beckett offers for the first time a comprehensive range of letters of one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. Selected for their bearing on his work from over 15,000 extant letters, the letters published in this four-volume edition encompass sixty years of Beckett's writing life (1929â1989), and include letters to friends, painters and musicians, as well as to students, publishers, translators, and colleagues in the world of literature and theatre. For anyone interested in twentieth-century literature and theatre this edition is essential reading, offering not only a record of Beckett's achievements but a powerful literary experience in itself.Trade Review'It is hard to credit the magisterial scholarship and publishing expertise that has gone into the editing of this first of four volumes of the letters of Samuel Beckett … a breathtaking and essential work of human understanding … This is a great book; simply priceless.' Gerald Dawe, The Sunday Business Post'For all of us who love Samuel Beckett, there can be no more thrilling book. These letters not only cast light on his life and work, they are a considerable addition to his writing … This is a volume to treasure, not just study. No Beckett reader will need it recommended, merely announced.' David Sexton, The Evening Standard'There is so much in the pages of this volume, and the editors honour both the writer and the reader with the painstaking detail with which they frame each carefully chosen letter. The excitement generated in this reader is not only from the perusal of the contents of this amazing collection of correspondence but of the promise of three more volumes to come.' Beverley Curran, Journal of Irish Studies'The first volume of Beckett's letters, The Letters of Samuel Beckett, 1929–1940 (Cambridge University Press), was the funniest, most intelligent and most poignant book I read this year, and since three more volumes are promised by Cambridge University Press we should be moved and entertained for some years to come.' Gabriel Josipovici, The Times Literary Supplement'This edition is beautiful to read. It sets the very highest standards of presentation and organizes inherently complex and often partial material most coherently. For example, many letters written to Beckett are lost, yet the reader is able to infer the tone and scope of his correspondence through the editors' meticulous annotation.' M. S. Byron, The Review of English Studies'One can hardly wait for Volume Two.' John Walsh, The Independent'The most bracing read [of 2009] was The Letters of Samuel Beckett, 1929–1940, a portrait of the Dubliner as a young European with a hard gemlike gift for language, learning and mockery. … Constantly Beckett is veering between certainty about his need to write and doubt about the results, all expressed in prose that is undoubting, delighted and demanding.' Seamus Heaney, The Times Literary Supplement'… these similarly anticipated letters have quite definitely arrived, and in an edition more sumptuous than one ever imagined. Has any modern author been better served by his editors than Beckett? … Best of all, each letter is annotated in detail, with every person, event and allusion scrupulously identified.' Michael Dirda, The Washington Post'Be in no doubt about it, if Godot and Molloy lit up the dreary landscape of writing in the immediate post-war era, these letters are set to do the same for the new century.' Gabriel Josipovici, The Times Literary Supplement'Beautifully edited and annotated.' Philip Hensher, The Spectator'Since Samuel Beckett was incapable of writing a duff sentence, the first volume of his letters, 25 years in the making, has been awaited with high anticipation … There are, of course, some superbly dark Beckettisms among these letters. His most characteristic utterances are what he calls 'shining agates of negation'.' Jonathan Bate, The Sunday Telegraph'Judging by this exemplary inaugural selection, the overall enterprise promises to be an extraordinary commitment, not only to the scholarly virtues of patience, concentration and scrupulousness but to a deep sense of the cultural value of the writer as a twentieth-century avatar … we must be grateful for the opportunity this magnificent work of scholarship provides to reflect on what there is to be known, and the conflicts and crises its subject underwent in his fidelity to the strange, demanding and all too human need to speak his mind.' George O'Brien, Dublin Review of Books'Impossible to mistake these letters for anyone else's work. Parts of them read like a nonfictionalized version of a Beckett novel.' Robin Moroney, The Wall Street Journal'In literary annals, 2009 may well go down as the year that saw the publication of not this or that novel, set of poems, or 'important' theory book, but, quirkily enough, the first of four promised volumes of the letters of Samuel Beckett …' Marjorie Perloff, Bookforum'It would be an understatement to say we look forward to the sequel.' Bert Keizer, The Threepenny ReviewTable of ContentsGeneral introduction; French translator's preface George Craig; German translator's preface Viola Westbrook; Editorial procedures; Acknowledgments; Permissions; Abbreviations; Introduction to Volume 1; Letters, 1929–1940; Appendix; Profiles; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisRadical Hope is a collection of letters—to ancestors, to children five generations from now, to strangers in grocery lines, to any and all who feel weary and discouraged—written by award-winning novelists, poets, political thinkers, and activists. Provocative and inspiring, Radical Hope offers readers a kaleidoscopic view of the love and courage needed to navigate this time of upheaval, uncertainty, and fear, in view of the recent US presidential election.Including letters by Junot Díaz, Alicia Garza, Roxana Robinson, Lisa See, Jewelle Gomez, Hari Kunzru, Faith Adiele, Parnaz Foroutan, Chip Livingston, Mohja Kahf, Achy Obejas, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Cherríe Moraga, Kate Schatz, Boris Fishman, Karen Joy Fowler, Elmaz Abinader, Aya de León, Jane Smiley, Luis Alberto Urrea, Mona Eltahawy, Jeff Chang, Claire Messud, Meredith Russo, Reyna Grande, Katie Kitamura, iO Tillett Wright, Francisco Goldman, Celeste Ng, Peter Orner, and Cristina Gar

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Book SynopsisA literary treasure of over one hundred unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O''Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of twentieth-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did. Good Things Out of Nazareth, a much-anticipated collection of many of O’Connor’s previously unpublished letters—along with those of literary luminaries such as Walker Percy (The Moviegoer), Caroline Gordon (None Shall Look Back), Katherine Anne Porter (Ship of Fools), Robert Giroux and movie critic Stanley Kauffmann. The letters explore such themes as creativity, faith, suffering, and writing. Brought together, they form a riveting literary portrait of these friends, artists, and thinkers. Here we find their joys and loves, as well as their trials and tribulations as they struggle with doubt and illness while championing their beliefs and often confronting racism in American society during the civil rights era.Praise for Good Things Out of Nazareth“An epistolary group portrait that will appeal to readers interested in the Catholic underpinnings of O''Connor''s life and work . . . These letters by the National Book Award–winning short story writer and her friends alternately fit and break the mold. Anyone looking for Southern literary gossip will find plenty of barbs. . . . But there’s also higher-toned talk on topics such as the symbolism in O’Connor’s work and the nature of free will.”—Kirkus Reviews   “A fascinating set of Flannery O’Connor’s correspondence . . . The compilation is highlighted by gems from O’Connor’s writing mentor, Caroline Gordon. . . . While O’Connor’s milieu can seem intimidatingly insular, the volume allows readers to feel closer to the writer, by glimpsing O’Connor’s struggles with lupus, which sometimes leaves her bedridden or walking on crutches, and by hearing her famously strong Georgian accent in the colloquialisms she sprinkles throughout the letters. . . . This is an important addition to the knowledge of O’Connor, her world, and her writing.”—Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA stirring meditation of being Black and learning to love in a loveless, anti-Black world“Only once in a lifetime do we come across a writer like Danté Stewart, so young and yet so masterful with the pen. This work is a thing to make dungeons shake and hearts thunder.”—Robert Jones, Jr., New York Times bestselling author of The ProphetsIn Shoutin’ in the Fire, Danté Stewart gives breathtaking language to his reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy—both the kind that hangs over our country and the kind that is internalized on a molecular level. Stewart uses his personal experiences as a vehicle to reclaim and reimagine spiritual virtues like rage, resilience, and remembrance—and explores how these virtues might function as a work of love against an unjust, unloving world.In 2016, Stewart was a rising leader at the predominantly white evangelical church he and his family were attending in Augusta, Georgia. Like many young church leaders, Stewart was thrilled at the prospect of growing his voice and influence within the community, and he was excited to break barriers as the church’s first Black preacher. But when Donald Trump began his campaign, so began the unearthing. Stewart started overhearing talk in the pews—comments ranging from microaggressions to outright hostility toward Black Americans. As this violence began to reveal itself en masse, Stewart quickly found himself isolated amid a people unraveled; this community of faith became the place where he and his family now found themselves most alone. This set Stewart on a journey—first out of the white church and then into a liberating pursuit of faith—by looking to the wisdom of the saints that have come before, including James H. Cone, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, and by heeding the paradoxical humility of Jesus himself.This sharply observed journey is an intimate meditation on coming of age in a time of terror. Stewart reveals the profound faith he discovered even after experiencing the violence of the American church: a faith that loves Blackness; speaks truth to pain and trauma; and pursues a truer, realer kind of love than the kind we’re taught, a love that sets us free.

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Book SynopsisAn archive of letters written by the late John le Carré, giving readers access to the intimate thoughts of one of the greatest writers of our timeThe never-before-seen correspondance of John le Carré, one of the most important novelists of our generation, are collected in this beautiful volume. During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author's humour, generosity, and wit--a side of him many readers have not previously seen.

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Book SynopsisIsaiah Berlin was born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, in 1909. When he was six, his family moved to Russia, and in Petrograd in 1917 Berlin witnessed both Revolutions - Social Democratic and Bolshevik. In 1921 he and his parents emigrated to England, where he was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Apart from his war service in New York, Washington, Moscow and Leningrad, he remained at Oxford thereafter - as a Fellow of All Souls, then of New College, as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, and as founding President of Wolfson College. He also held the Presidency of the British Academy. His published work includes Karl Marx, Russian Thinkers, Concepts and Categories, Against the Current, Personal Impressions, The Sense of Reality, The Proper Study of Mankind, The Roots of Romanticism, The Power of Ideas, Three Critics of the Enlightenment, Freedom and Its Betrayal, Liberty, The Soviet Mind and Political Ideas in

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Book SynopsisRoger Schutz-Marsauche, known around the world as Brother Roger, is one of the most influential figures in Christianity in the twentieth century. He was founder and first prior of the Taizé Community in France, where tens of thousands of young Christians flock each year for its distinctive music and contemplative style of worship, spending time in prayer and reflection. Yet it is the community of monastic brothers, from differing Christian traditions and over twenty-five different countries, who make this contemplative experience possible. These brothers stand as a ''parable of community'' and as a sign of unity in the midst of a divided world and a divided Christianity. The second volume of Brother Roger''s Journals covers the years 1960-1972, focussing on the birth and initial preparation of a ''Council of Youth'', a project catalysed by the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Brother Roger also details the ongoing life of the community, the

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling, cancer-vanquishing Love Your Sister team, and edited by the indefatigable Samuel Johnson, comes Dear Lover, a funny, revealing and soul-stirring collection of letters written by notable Australians like Turia Pitt, Samuel Johnson, Susie Youssef, Hilde Hinton, Stuart Coupe, Jacqui Lambie, Larry Emdur, John Paul Young, Mandy Beaumont, Rhett Davis, Adam Harvey, Mark Brandi and Kate Mildenhall, to name a few, just in time for Valentine''s Day. What would someone say to their childhood sweetheart, their life partner, their latest crush or their cherished soul mate? ''Thanks for everything?'' ''Unravel your sports socks before you put them in the washing basket?'' Anything goes in this collection of letters. If you could tell your lover anything, what would it be?A big-hearted, comforting and uplifting collection of letters celebrating love. The perfect gift for the one you love.

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Book SynopsisTravel back in time and witness both everyday life and great moments in history in this fascinating compilation of diaries through the ages.Bringing together historical and literary diaries, artists' sketchbooks, explorers' journals, and scientists' notebooks, Remarkable Diaries provides an intimate insight into the lives and thoughts of some of the most interesting people of the last two thousand years. Discover what it was like to build a pyramid, sail the seas with Magellan, travel into the heart of Africa, or serve on the Western Front. Find out how writers and artists planned their masterpieces, and how scientists developed their groundbreaking theories.Arranged chronologically, Remarkable Diaries takes you into the pages of the world's greatest diaries, notebooks, and letters, including those of Samuel Pepys, Henry-David Thoreau, the Goncourt brothers, Virginia Woolf, and Anne Frank. Stunning reproductions of the original notebooks and manuscr

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Book SynopsisKimber details his exhilaration, his everyday concerns and his horror as he adapts to an active wartime role. Arthur Clifford Kimber was one of the first Americans on the front line after the entry of the US into the war and, tragically, also one of the last to be buried there – killed in action just a few weeks before the end of the war.

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Book SynopsisOh, the places a whore will go: Strip clubs, four-star hotels, stinking basement apartments, luxury cottages. A striking memoir by Andrea Werhun and Nicole Bazuin documents Andrea''s sex work career in lush photography and powerful words—in all its slippery, sexy, silly and sometimes heartbreaking glory. Andrea Werhun''s sex work career gave her money, freedom, joy, and a lot of dick. A natural performer, she revelled in the opportunity to invent Mary Ann, her escort counterpart, and introduce her to men all over the city. She whores, she learns, she writes it all down, and then, as per a signed document she handed to her Catholic mother in her early twenties, she quits. To become a stripper. Andrea and Nicole revisit the idea of the modern whore, with the enhanced perspective of Andrea''s experience at the strip club. This new, engorged edition of the sold-out memoir-cum-art book expands on the original concept--a series of vignettes exploring the many identities sex workers adopt in the service of their clients and in the eyes of the public--in both a literal and literary way. But Andrea doesn''t shy away from the serious side of sex work, either, exploring the risks sex workers take, and the rights our culture is constantly taking away from them. This series of stories and portraits investigate the many ways we imagine—and mistake—the modern whore. It''s Playboy if the Playmates were in charge. 

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Book SynopsisThey make available for the first time in English the frank and insightful letters of the French minister on the subject of the new federal government.Trade ReviewThis complete and well-edited record of the First Federal Congress is a model documentary edition. Historians of the early republic owe thanks to the editors and publisher of this exemplary collection. -- Kenneth R. Stevens Journal of the Early Republic 2006Table of ContentsIllustrationsIntroductionEditorial MethodAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations and SymbolsMembers of the House of RepresentativesMembers of the SenateSubjects Debated in the House of RepresentativesSubjects Debated in the SenateAppointees to Office During the First CongressCorrespondence: First SessionMarch 1789April 1789May 1789

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents letters written by and to members of the First Federal Congress and communications from other informed individuals at the seat of government in New York City by 1789. They bring the official record to life by providing details about the political process.Trade ReviewThis complete and well-edited record of the First Federal Congress is a model documentary edition. Historians of the early republic owe thanks to the editors and publisher of this exemplary collection. -- Kenneth R. Stevens Journal of the Early Republic 2006Table of ContentsIllustrationsCorrespondence: First SessionJune 1789July 1789August 1789

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents letters written by and to members of the First Federal Congress and communications from other informed individuals at the seat of government in New York City by 1789. They bring the official record to life by providing details about the political process.Trade ReviewThis complete and well-edited record of the First Federal Congress is a model documentary edition. Historians of the early republic owe thanks to the editors and publisher of this exemplary collection. -- Kenneth R. Stevens Journal of the Early Republic 2006Table of ContentsIllustrationsCorrespondence: First SessionSeptember 1789October 1789November 1789December 1789Residences of MembersNew York City Weather ChartsBiogrphical GazetteerFirst Session House BillsFirst Session Senate BillsIndex

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of the acclaimed novel A Pigeon and a Boy comes a charming tale of family ties, over-the-top housekeeping, and the sport of storytelling in Nahalal, the village of Meir Shalev’s birth. Here we meet Shalev’s amazing Grandma Tonia, who arrived in Palestine by boat from Russia in 1923 and lived in a constant state of battle with what she viewed as the family’s biggest enemy in their new land: dirt. Grandma Tonia was never seen without a cleaning rag over her shoulder. She received visitors outdoors. She allowed only the most privileged guests to enter her spotless house. Hilarious and touching, Grandma Tonia and her regulations come richly to life in a narrative that circles around the arrival into the family’s dusty agricultural midst of the big, shiny American sweeper sent as a gift by Great-uncle Yeshayahu (he who had shockingly emigrated to the sinful capitalist heaven of Los Angeles!). America, to little Meir and to his forebears, was a land of hedonism and enchanting progress; of tempting luxuries, dangerous music, and degenerate gum-chewing; and of women with painted fingernails. The sweeper, a stealth weapon from Grandpa Aharon’s American brother meant to beguile the hardworking socialist household with a bit of American ease, was symbolic of the conflicts and visions of the family in every respect. The fate of Tonia’s “svieeperrr”—hidden away for decades in a spotless closed-off bathroom after its initial use—is a family mystery that Shalev determines to solve. The result, in this cheerful translation by Evan Fallenberg, is pure delight, as Shalev brings to life the obsessive but loving Tonia, the pioneers who gave his childhood its spirit of wonder, and the grit and humor of people building ever-new lives.

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Book Synopsis“A brave writer of tumultuous beauty.” —Entertainment Weekly“Beautifully rendered.” —ElleA poignant, unflinchingly assured memoir.” —The Boston Globe This “sobering portrayal” of a pregnant teen exiled from her small New Hampshire community is “a testament to the importance of understanding and even forgiving the people who . . . have made us who we are” (O, The Oprah Magazine). Meredith Hall’s moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East, where she survives by selling her possessions

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Book SynopsisA monumental, deeply penetrating document of life in Kyiv during the first forty-one days of the Russian invasion of UkraineTrade Review"How do you remain an artist at such a moment of terror? One answer might come in the form of Belorusets’s war diary which she began publishing as the invasion started and which has gained the appreciation of writers like Margaret Atwood and Miranda July. Through this act of documentation, in words and photographs, she is processing the total collapse of her world and keeping alive her openness, her powers of observation." -- Gal Beckerman - The Atlantic"Belorusets said the practice of photographing her day has been helpful in fighting the fog of war. That at the end of the day she'll start to write, and look at her collection of pictures from the day, and suddenly, things will come back to her—things she'd completely forgotten. . . . And if taking pictures helps remembering the un-rememberable, the writing helps believing the unbelievable." -- Andrew Limbong - NPR"The surreal circumstances Belorusets depicts, both in her writing and in the accompanying color photographs, set against the drama of war are quietly disturbing. A compelling portrait of a nation under siege as well as the inspiring resilience of ordinary Ukrainians." -- Kirkus"The Ukrainian artist and writer began keeping an online diary the day Russia began shelling her hometown of Kyiv, but it quickly took on a global life after its translation by an anonymous collective and a live reading by Margaret Atwood on International Women’s Day. In book form, these collected entries bring home the mix of fear, banality, helplessness and incredulity Beloruset experienced in the war’s first 41 days." -- The Globe and Mail"War Diary mounts an unrelenting assault on civilized comforts." -- John Domini - Brooklyn Rail"In War Diary, no veil of fiction stands between the reader and the nightmare of life under military assault." -- Ben Shull - Wall Street Journal"The big emotional takeaway from War Diary is a sense of abandonment. Belorusets can’t believe that the world is watching these atrocities, right out on Ukraine’s streets, and not stepping in more forcefully. Russia’s troops, to her, seem more like terrorists than soldiers." -- Dwight Garner - The New York Times"Beloruset’s diary is animated by a simple and sincere disbelief that anything as cruel and senseless as war can exist anywhere. … Her struggle to make sense of the violence that has entered her city is an eloquent reminder that missiles falling at home are always unfathomable. In this sense she is speaking for everyone whose life has been interrupted by war, no matter where they live, no matter what their country’s position in the geopolitical landscape." -- Sophie Pinkham - New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The acclaimed author of The Other Wes Moore and governor of Maryland continues his inspirational quest for a meaningful life and shares the powerful lessons—about self-discovery, service, and risk-taking—that led him to a new definition of success for our times.“This book is about how to make our journeys not just about surviving and succeeding, but about coming truly alive.”—Arianna Huffington The Work is the story of how one young man traced a path through the world to find his life’s purpose. Wes Moore graduated from a difficult childhood in the Bronx and Baltimore to an adult life that would find him at some of the most critical moments in our recent history: as a combat officer in Afghanistan; a White House fellow in a time of wars abroad and disasters at home; and a Wall Street banker during the financial crisis. In this insightful book, Moore shares the lesso

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Book SynopsisA moving memoir of a life spent in the company of animals—a veterinarian sheds light on the universal experience of loving, healing, and losing our beloved pets, and the many ways they change our lives.  The pursuit of a childhood dream has taken Suzy Fincham-Gray on a journey in veterinary medicine from pastoral farms on the English–Welsh border to emergency rooms in urban American animal hospitals, with thousands of stories collected along the way. In this unforgettable literary debut, she writes about some of the most emotionally challenging and rewarding cases of her career.             Like many physicians, Fincham-Gray tends to see her patients at often life-or-death moments. While dramatic, these stories expand into deeper explorations of our complex, profound relationships with the animals in our lives. She describes the satisfaction of diagnosing and treating difficult diseas

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Book SynopsisWert During the Civil War, Confederate John Singleton Mosby led the Forty-third Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, better known as Mosby's Rangers, in many bold and daring operations behind Union lines.Trade ReviewMosby wrote very entertaining letters, and these - many published here for the first time - highlight his intelligence, razor-sharp memory, bounteous wit, and colorful sense of humor. - James A. Ramage, author of Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby

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Book SynopsisHowever, many Merton scholars and fans remain unaware of the significant body of letters that were exchanged between the Trappist monk and Victor and Carolyn Hammer.Unable to leave his home at the Abbey of Gethsemani except on special occasions, Merton developed a unique friendship with this couple from nearby Lexington, Kentucky.

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Book SynopsisHowever, many Merton scholars and fans remain unaware of the significant body of letters that were exchanged between the Trappist monk and Victor and Carolyn Hammer.Unable to leave his home at the Abbey of Gethsemani except on special occasions, Merton developed a unique friendship with this couple from nearby Lexington, Kentucky.

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Book SynopsisCharlotte Perkins Gilman has reemerged as a major American literary figure, as evidenced by the republication of many of her stories and novels and an explosion of scholarship on her. This title presents a collection of letters that provides insights into her character through her own words.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Washington Carver (1864-1943) is best known for developing new uses for agricultural crops and teaching methods of soil improvement to southern farmers. This annotated selection of his letters and other writings from the collections at the Tuskegee Institute and the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Missouri, reveals the forces that shaped his creative genius.Trade ReviewKremer’s background and transitional comments, along with Carver’s writings, succeed in bringing Carver to life; helping readers to encounter, empathize with, and appreciate this complex, often contradictory man."" - The Journal of Southern History, for the first edition

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection A major literary event—the long-awaited publication of George Orwell's diaries, chronicling the events that inspired his greatest works.Trade Review"Starred review. [A] lushly annotated edition of Orwell’s diaries from 1931 to 1949…. Born Eric Arthur Blair, Orwell, as these diaries reveal, lived a varied and even dichotomized life. …Editor Davison (English/De Montfort Univ.) supplies necessary contextual information and footnotes generously, but stays in the shadows and allows us to truly enjoy Orwell’s impressive chronicles." -- Kirkus Reviews"Read with care, George Orwell’s diaries, from the years 1931 to 1949, can greatly enrich our understanding of how Orwell transmuted the raw material of everyday experience into some of his best-known novels and polemics. They furnish us with a more intimate picture of a man who, committed to the struggles of the mechanized and “modern” world, was also drawn by the rhythms of the wild, the rural, and the remote." -- Christopher Hitchens - Vanity Fair"One cannot help but be struck by the degree to which [Orwell] became, in Henry James’s words, one of those upon whom nothing was lost. By declining to lie, even as far as possible to himself, and by his determination to seek elusive but verifiable truth, he showed how much can be accomplished by an individual who unites the qualities of intellectual honesty and moral courage." -- Christopher Hitchens, from the Introduction of Diaries"Among the vivifying things about his Diaries, issued now in one volume for the first time, is how they restore some first-person flesh and blood to what can seem like his disembodied head. What’s more, they show Orwell to be nearly Jeffersonian in his combined passion for politics and for the natural world, not merely for fishing but also for the enlightened and fervent cultivation of vegetables, fruit trees, animals and flowers… These diaries show him with his hands covered in fresh dirt, hard at work, in sync with the seasons, curious about everything under the sun, tending to what he needed and grateful for beauty as well as sustenance. They present a man in full." -- Dwight Garner - New York Times"Never before published in the United States, this wonderfully annotated collection of George Orwell’s diaries from 1931 to 1949 is sure to fascinate any fan of his work. From his down and out years to his stint working at the BBC during WWII (“something halfway between a girls’ school and a lunatic asylum…. Our radio strategy is even more hopeless than our military strategy.”), the reader can catch a glimpse of this essential English writer’s internal life, and watch the ideas that became Animal Farm and 1984 bloom, percolate, and grow." -- Emily Temple - Flavorpill"Reading the Diaries end-to-end in a single volume offers us a different take on Orwell: less as a thinker, or a figure of political conscience, than as a complex and dimensional human being." -- David Ulin - Los Angeles Times"Orwell’s achievement grew out of seemingly modest virtues: decency; good, hard sense; and clean, clear prose. Yet they added up to something monumental… The diaries as a whole do exactly what you would expect: They confirm his greatness." -- Craig Seligman - Bloomberg.com"Orwell lived in London during most of World War II, including during the Battle of Britain. Entries during this period have the author’s defining features on display, including unimpeachable intellectual honesty, concern about the degradation of truth, physical courage, and unpretentious writing… All the traits that made Orwell so great can be found in the Diaries." -- Jordan Michael Smith - Christian Science Monitor"A window into the way Orwell's mind worked." -- Barry Gewen - New York Times Book Review, Front page"Reading these diaries leaves one, as always when encountering the words of George Orwell, with a confirmed admiration for the sterling qualities that have made him a benchmark for integrity and a lodestar for writers and thinkers across the ideological spectrum. Embedded in the DNA of his writing is that austere, penetrating analytical ability, averse to cant or any form of hypocrisy and pretension, unsparing of everything and everyone—especially himself. He simply can't help being that way: Once pen is put to paper, or fingers to typewriter, those qualities appear, second nature to his writing, even the most casual." -- Martin Rubin - San Francisco Chronicle"...[T]he diaries as a whole do exactly what you would expect: They confirm his greatness." -- Craig Seligman - Newsday"We should celebrate the publication of Orwell’s diaries. The publication of personal texts by other authors might smack of cheap opportunism, purely a money-making ploy. But I think publishers got it right with Orwell." -- Scott Beauchamp - Book Riot"How appropriate that the political moralist George Orwell (1903-50) should be published by a company called Liveright! Orwell, who despised every form of careerism, instinctively gravitated to the kind of quiet rural existence that we associate with ancient Greek philosophers or Anglican clergyman of the 18th century. Certainly, these diaries reveal that the author of Animal Farm was happiest cultivating his garden, observing the weather, enjoying the beauty of spring flowers and watching over the health of his hens." -- Michael Dirda - Washington Post"It is a blessing, then, to now have the opportunity to read his Diaries, edited meticulously by Peter Davison, who as the editor of the twenty volumes of Orwell's Complete Works has an unequaled knowledge of the material… They throw a revealing light on Orwell the thinker, and offer welcome stimulus to revisit the books and essays in which that mind left its lasting imprint." -- Brooke Allen - Barnes and Noble Review"Edited with exemplary skill and grace by Peter Davison." -- William H. Gass - Harper's

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Book SynopsisLetters from WWII service in Italy to a beloved wife back home

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Book SynopsisA firsthand account of previously almost inaccessible eastern Greenland

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Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • The selected correspondence of the brilliant poet, one of the twentieth century's last great letter writers.I don't keep a journal, not after the first week, James Merrill asserted in a letter while on a trip around the world. Letters have got to bear all the burden. A vivacious correspondent, whether abroad, where avid curiosity and fond memory frequently took him, or at home, he wrote eagerly and often, to family and lifelong friends, American and Greek lovers, confidants in literature and art about everything that mattered—aesthetics, opera and painting, housekeeping and cooking, the comedy of social life, the mysteries of the Ouija board and the spirit world, and psychological and moral dilemmas—in funny, dashing, unrevised missives, composed to entertain himself as well as his recipients. On a personal nemesis: the ambivalence I live with. It worries me less and less. It becomes th

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Book SynopsisThe first of two hardcover volumes collecting the major nonfiction by the father of American literature: more than 150 letters, essays, and speeches selected to showcase the dazzling range of his interests and passions. An Everyman's Library Original. Whether crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans or blazing through Europe and the Americas, Twain turned his trademark wit, candor, and acerbic sarcasm on all his experiences. We can trace his personal evolution through his ambition-filled missives home to Missouri after moving out West to be a fledgling reporter, his raucous stories of navigating a steamboat down the Mississippi, his romantic-turned-elegiac sentiments for his wife, Livy, and, later in life, his darker reflections on the ills of society. Often too outrageous not to be true, Twain’s real-life adventures added to his enduring legend, while his clear-eyed view of humanity has provided an unmatched blend of entertainment and moral integrity for generations of readers.

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