Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 5397 items
George Mackay Brown: The Life
By Maggie Fergusson. 2007
George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's greatest twentieth-century writers, but in person a bundle of paradoxes. He had a…
wide international reputation, but hardly left his native Orkney. A prolific poet, admired by such fellow poets as Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Charles Causley, and hailed by the composer Peter Maxwell Davies as 'the most positive and benign influence ever on my own efforts at creation', he was also an accomplished novelist (shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize for Beside the Ocean of Time) and a master of the short story. When he died in 1996, he left behind an autobiography as deft as it is ultimately uninformative. 'The lives of artists are as boring and also as uniquely fascinating as any or every other life,' he claimed. Never a recluse, he appeared open to his friends, but probably revealed more of himself in his voluminous correspondence with strangers. He never married - indeed he once wrote, 'I have never been in love in my life.' But some of his most poignant letters and poems were written to Stella Cartwright, 'the Muse of Rose Street', the gifted but tragic figure to whom he was once engaged and with whom he kept in touch until the end of her short life.Maggie Fergusson interviewed George Mackay Brown several times and is the only biographer to whom he, a reluctant subject, gave his blessing. Through his letters and through conversations with his wide acquaintance, she discovers that this particular artist's life was not only fascinating but vivid, courageous and surprising.Ginsberg: A Biography
By Barry Miles. 1989
Barry Miles has accounted the life of one of the most extraordinary poets. Drawing on his long literary association with…
Ginsberg, as well as on the poet's journals and correspondence, he presents an account of a controversial life.Memoirs of My Life and Writings
By Edward Gibbon. 1984
Let Not the Waves of the Sea
By Simon Stephenson. 2011
LET NOT THE WAVES OF THE SEA is Simon Stephenson's account of his journey following the loss of his brother…
in the Indian Ocean tsunami. If it is a story of grief, it is also a story of hope and of the unexpected places where healing can be found. Simon's journey takes him from Edinburgh in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, to Downing Street in London, to Thailand and the island where his brother died, to the scene of an ancient tsunami on the north-west coast of the United States, and to the town where he and his brother's favourite childhood film was made. Along the way there is heartbreak, dengue fever, Greek mythology, and hard physical labour in the tropical heat, but there is also memory, redemption and humour as well.Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record, an Estimate, and a Memorial
By Alexander H. Japp.
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club…
where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: History / General; BiographyMolly Keane: A Life
By Sally Phipps. 1993
Molly Keane (1904 - 96) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born in County Kildare) most famous for Good Behaviour…
which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Hailed as the Irish Nancy Mitford in her day; as well as writing books she was the leading playwright of the '30s, her work directed by John Gielgud. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981, aged seventy, she published Good Behaviour under her own name. The manuscript, which had languished in a drawer for many years, was lent to a visitor, the actress Peggy Ashcroft, who encouraged Keane to publish it.Molly Keane's novels reflect the world she inhabited; she was from a 'rather serious hunting and fishing, church-going family'. She was educated, as was the custom in Anglo-Irish households, by a series of governesses and then at boarding school. Distant and awkward relationships between children and their parents would prove to be a recurring theme for Keane. Maggie O'Farrell wrote that 'she writes better than anyone else about the mother-daughter relationship, in all its thorny, fraught, inescapable complexity.'Here, for the first time, is her biography and, written by one of her two daughters, it provides an honest portrait of a fascinating, complicated woman who was a brilliant writer and a portrait of the Anglo-Irish world of the first half of the twentieth century.In My Own Time: Thoughts and Afterthoughts
By Jane Miller. 2016
For the past four years Jane Miller, author of Crazy Age: Thoughts on Being Old, has been writing a column…
for an American magazine called In These Times. Her beautifully observed pieces about life, politics and Britain open a window to her American readers of a world very different from their own.'Her erudition is both dazzling and lightly borne, the personal often illuminating the political . . . Miller's is a welcome, necessary voice - readable, informative and entertaining' Times Literary SupplementJane Miller, author of the acclaimed Crazy Age, has for the past few years been writing a column for an American magazine based in Chicago called In These Times. Now, these beautifully observed pieces about life, politics and Britain, which opened a window for Americans on a world rather different from their own, are collected and published for the first time for her British readers.'Miller is a fantastic companion' Viv Groskop, TelegraphAll The Dogs Of My Life: A Virago Modern Classic
By Elizabeth Von Arnim. 1995
First published in 1936, this is the story of Elizabeth von Arnim's extraordinary life - and her equally extraordinary dogs.…
From her Pomeranian idyll (celebrated in her famous first book, ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN), to less happy days in London following the death of her first husband; from the beautiful solitude of her Swiss mountain hideaway, to the First World War and a disastrous second marriage, the author takes us on a disarmingly witty and poignant journey of canine companionship.How to Cook a Dragon
By Linda Furiya. 2008
When Linda Furiya decided to move to China with her boyfriend at the age of thirty, she hoped to find…
romance and ethnic kinship. Expecting common ground with locals as an Asian American, Furiya struggled with her ambition as a food writer in a nation where notions of race and gender are set in stone. During the six years she lived in Beijing and Shanghai, Furiya experienced a wide range of experiences--loneliness, isolation, friendship, and love--tied together by one common theme: food. Ultimately, Furiya surpassed these challenges and found inspiration from the courageous Chinese women who graced her life. The sensuous experience of preparing and eating authentic Chinese cuisine follows Furiya throughout her journey, and ultimately reveals the intimate, nurturing side of the Chinese culture and people. Part insightful memoir, part authentic cookbook, How to Cook a Dragon is a revealing look at race, love, and food in China.Shakespeare Alive!
By Joseph Papp, Elizabeth Kirkland. 1988
From Joseph Papp, American's foremost theater producer, and writer Elizabeth Kirkland: a captivating tour through the world of William Shakespeare.…
Discover the London of Shakespeare's time, a fascinating place to be--full of mayhem and magic, exploration and exploitation, courtiers and foreigners. Stroll through narrow, winding streets crowded with merchants and minstrels, hoist a pint in a rowdy alehouse, and hurry across the river to the open-air Globe Theater to see that latest play written by a young man named Will Shakespeare. Shakespeare Alive! spirits you back to the very years of that London--as everyday people might have experienced it. Find out how young people fell in love, how workers and artists made ends meet, what people found funny and what they feared most. Go on location with an Elizabethan theater company to learn how plays were produced, where Shakespeare's plots came from and how he transformed them. Hear the music of Shakespeare's language and words we still use today that were first spoken in his time. Open the book and elbow your way into the Globe with the groundlings. You'll be joining one of the most democratic audiences the theater has ever known--alewives, apprentices, shoemakers and nobles--in applauding the dazzling wordplay and swordplay brought to you by William Shakespeare.Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940-1971 (revised and expanded)
By Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, Simon Karlinsky. 2001
Tracing in detail two decades of close friendship between Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson, this collection has been expanded to…
include 59 letters discovered subsequent to the book's original publication in 1979.From Under the Russian Snow
By Michelle A Carter. 2017
At age 50, Michelle Carter, a married mother of two adult children, left her job as editor of a suburban…
newspaper in the San Francisco Bay area to move to Russia for a year as a United States Information Agency Journalist-in-Residence. There she worked with newspaper editors who struggled to adapt to the new concepts of press freedom and a market economy. She became an on-the-scene witness to the second great Russian revolution. At the same time, she embarked on a personal journey that wrenched her life in a way she could never have anticipated when she accepted her husband's challenge to take the assignment.Northern Lights: A Poet's Sources
By George Mackay Brown. 2007
Many of the places, people, legends and seasons that formed Brown's vision and work are presented here, with poems appearing…
among the prose. Included are memoirs of his parents, friends and passing strangers with legends and stories of the places.Poems From the Madhouse
By Sandy Jeffs. 2000
The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones
By Amiri Baraka. 1997
The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss
By Kathleen Krull. 2004
Mark Twain for Kids: His Life & Times, 21 Activities
By R. Kent Rasmussen. 2004
Nineteenth-century America and the world of Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, come to life as children journey…
back in time with this history- and literature-laden activity book. The comprehensive biographical information explores Mark Twain as a multi-talented man of his times, from his childhood in the rough-and-tumble West of Missouri to his many careers--steamboat pilot, printer, miner, inventor, world traveler, businessman, lecturer, newspaper reporter, and most important, author--and how these experiences influenced his writing. Twain-inspired activities include making printer's type, building a model paddlewheel boat, unmasking a hoax, inventing new words, cooking cornpone, planning a newspaper, observing people, and writing maxims. An extensive resource section offers information on Twain's classics, such as Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as a listing of recommended web sites to explore.Khushwant Singh: The Legend Lives On . . .
By Rahul Singh. 2014
Here was a man Prolific writer Acerbic critic Editor nonpareil Trenchant…
humourist Connoisseur of single malt Lover of life words women and all things beautiful You know that I am 99 years old I replied May my years be added to yours He looked up at me with the softest expression and said No but may you live as long as I have I held his hand the hand that had spent a lifetime writing books and inimitable articles and kissed it He brushed his cheek with mine Both of us knew that it was a farewell I left and stood on the gravel outside Fakir Syed Aijazuddin Features Writer Dawn the Patiala Peg of publishing is no more But we will continue to raise our glasses and thank him for liberating us from our idiotic hypocritical fake humourless lives for making us laugh at ourselves for ridding us of quaint sexual hang-ups for chucking old rules into the waste basket for caring a damn Jeena isi ka naam hai Shobhaa D Bestselling AuthorAlgren: A Life
By Mary Wisniewski. 2017
The first examination of Nelson Algren in over 25 years, Algren is the definitive biography of one of the best-known…
writers of mid-20th-century America. Journalist Mary Wisniewski interviewed dozens of Algren's inner circle, including photographer Art Shay and the late Studs Terkel, and examined Algren's unpublished writing and correspondence, including hundreds of letters he received from lover Simone de Beauvoir, to craft an account as entertaining as it is meticulously researched. Algren reveals details about the writer's life, work, personality, and habits, digging beneath the street-crawling man's man stereotype to show a funny, sensitive, and romantic but self-destructive artist. This fresh look at the man whose tough but humorous style and compassionate message enchanted readers and fellow writers is indispensable to anyone interested in 20th-century American literature.A Girl Called Vincent: The Life of Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay
By Krystyna Poray Goddu. 2016
There was never anything calm about Vincent. Her sisters used to say that she had a bee chasing her. Edna…
St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950), known as Vincent, was an acclaimed American poet who came to embody the modern, liberated woman of the Jazz Age. From the fiery energy of her youth to the excitement and acclaim of her early adulthood in New York and Paris, to the demands of living in the public eye, Vincent's life was characterized by creativity, hard work, and passion. A Girl Called Vincent traces her incredible journey from a unique and talented girl to an international celebrity and Pulitzer Prize–winning poet. Raised in poverty in rural Maine, where she was often the sole caretaker of her two younger sisters, the rebellious, creative, red-haired Vincent always found time for writing, acting, singing, and playing piano. She became a sensation in young adulthood, bewitching audiences with her words, voice, and luminous appearance. She mixed with the literary figures of her time and broke many hearts. Her volumes of poetry were enormous bestsellers and audiences nationwide went wild when she recited her works onstage. In addition to poetry, Vincent's body of work includes plays, translations, and an opera, and ranges from love sonnets to antiwar propaganda.Packed with photos, poems, letter and diary excerpts, a time line, and bibliographic notes, A Girl Called Vincent is an eye-opening and valuable addition to any young reader's or aspiring writer's bookshelf.