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Showing 1 - 20 of 38 items
Shadow maker: the life of Gwendolyn MacEwen
By Rosemary Sullivan. 1995
Using the personal impressions of the poet's intimate friends, Rosemary Sullivan builds a composite portrait of Gwendolyn MacEwan, the Toronto…
poet who died in 1987 at the age of 46. The daughter of an alcoholic father and mentally ill mother, MacEwen's story is a painful one, yet the richness of her art and inner life redeemed the pain. Winner of the 1995 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction.Northrop Frye: a biography
By John Ayre. 1989
Northrop Frye authored three of the most influential books of literary criticism and his revolutionary theories established his international fame.…
In this biography, Ayre describes Frye's impoverished childhood and traces the progression of his work. Nominated for the City of Toronto and Trillium Awards.Molière
By Roger Duchêne. 1998
Molière n'a pas laissé de confidences. Pas une lettre, pas un mot. Il a près de quarante ans quand il…
commence à faire parler de lui. Sa vie et son oeuvre font scandale. On l'accuse de ruiner la religion, la famille, la morale. Et d'avoir épousé la fille de sa maîtresse, sa propre fille... Qui ne se priverait pas de le cocufier abondamment. Ses ennemis forgent sa légende noire, ses amis une légende dorée. Cette biographie les replace enfin dans leur contexte. En les prenant au sérieux, sans les tenir pour vraies, en les présentant au lecteur pour qu'il puisse juger à son tour. 1998.Mao's last dancer
By Cunxin Li. 2003
This is the true story of how, by the thinnest thread of a chance, one moment in time changed the…
course of a small boy's life in ways that are beyond imagination. One day he would dance with some of the greatest ballet companies of the world. One day he would be a friend to a president and first lady, movie stars and the most influential people in America. One day he would become a star: Mao's last dancer, and the darling of the West. Here is Li Cunxin's own story, a beautiful, rich account of an inspirational life, told with honesty, dignity and pride. 2003.Life on the Mississippi (Modern Library)
By Mark Twain. 1994
Memoir of Twain's career as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River in his youth before the Civil War. Twenty-one…
years later he returns for a trip from St. Louis to New Orleans, reminiscing about the changes and the cities he encounters. Includes a history of the river. Originally published in 1883. 1994.Frida: a biography of Frida Kahlo
By Hayden Herrera. 1998
Frida is the story of one of the twentieth-century's most extraordinary women, the painter Frida Kahlo. Born near Mexico City,…
she grew up during the turbulent days of the Mexican Revolution and, at eighteen, was the victim of an accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children. To salvage what she could from her unhappy situation, Kahlo had to learn to keep still - so she began to paint. 1998.Flags of our fathers
By James Bradley, Ron Powers. 2000
Recounts the story of the six young Marines who raised the flag at Iwo Jima during fierce combat on the…
obscure Japanese-held island in 1945. Author Bradley, the son of one of the soldiers, recreates his father's experiences as well as those of the five men who fought beside him. Bestseller. 2000.De Kooning: an American master
By Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan, Willem De Kooning. 2004
Biography of Dutch-born artist Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), who became a major figure in the mid-twentieth-century New York abstract expressionism…
scene. Explores de Kooning's bohemian habits, friendship with Gorky, financial backing from Hirshhorn and Fourcade, only marriage, and passion for painting. Some descriptions of sex. Pulitzer Prize. 2004.Eat, pray, love: one woman's search for everything
By Elizabeth Gilbert. 2007
Elizabeth Gilbert, in her thirties, settles into a large a house with a husband who wants to start a family.…
But she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and determined to find what she's missing. So she begins her quest. In Rome, she indulges herself and gains nearly two stone. In India, she finds enlightenment through scrubbing temple floors. Finally in Bali, a toothless medicine man reveals a new path to peace, leaving her ready to love again. 2007.American sniper: the autobiography of the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history
By Chris Kyle, Jim DeFelice, Scott McEwen. 2012
Texas ranch hand-turned-Navy SEAL recalls his career as the sniper with the most kills in U.S. military history. Describes his…
training, his four tours of duty in Iraq, and the strains of deployment on his family life. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2012.Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption
By Laura Hillenbrand. 2010
Details the life of Louis Zamperini (b. 1917), an Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, who survived a plane…
crash and forty-seven days adrift at sea only to become a POW in Japan. Relates Louis's later religious awakening under Billy Graham's ministry. Violence. Bestseller. 2010.With Borges
By Alberto Manguel. 2004
During the 1960s, Manguel, then a teenager, spent many evenings reading to Jorge Luis Borges, a giant of modern literature,…
because Borges had gradually become blind. As the author describes his visits to Borges in his dark, modest apartment, reading out loud and talking about books, we have a privileged look into the inner world of a literary legend, a window into the private life of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century. Winner of the Prix du Livre en Poitou-Charentes 2003.The life and death of Adolf Hitler
By James Giblin. 2002
Biography of the German political leader whose racial prejudice and personal ambition shaped World War II. Traces Hitler's life and…
career from his birth in Austria in 1889 to his death in Berlin in 1945. Briefly discusses this tyrant's legacy. Some descriptions of violence. Grades 5-8 and older readers. Siebert Award. 2002.Willie, the life of W. Somerset Maugham: The Life Of W. Somerset Maugham
By Robert Calder. 1989
An examination of writer Maugham's homosexuality and unhappy marriage, his Victorian sense of propriety, his wanderlust, his verbal and financial…
generosity, and his turbulent relationship with his daughter. Winner of the 1989 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction. 1989.War
By Sebastian Junger. 2010
For one year, in 2007-2008, Sebastian Junger accompanied a single platoon of thirty men from the storied 2nd battalion of…
the U.S. Army, as they fought their way through a remote valley in Eastern Afghanistan. Over the course of five trips, Junger was in more firefights than he can count, men he knew were killed or wounded, and he himself was almost killed. War is a narrative about combat: the fear of dying, the trauma of killing and the love between platoon-mates who would rather die than let each other down. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2010.Unbroken: an extraordinary true story of courage and survival
By Laura Hillenbrand. 2012
Details the life of Louis Zamperini (b. 1917), an Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, who survived a plane…
crash and forty-seven days adrift at sea only to become a POW in Japan. Relates Louis's later religious awakening under Billy Graham's ministry. Bestseller 2010. 2012.An "oral biography" consisting of interviews with people who recall Capote's work and personality, beginning with his childhood in Monroeville,…
Alabama. Discussions of his nonfiction "novel" "In cold blood," the social event dubbed the "black-and-white ball," and his whirl on the celebrity circuit. Some strong language. 1997.The right cheek: an autobiography (The French writers of Canada series)
By Claire Martin. 1968
In the second part of her autobiography, the author describes her adolescence and early womanhood in her father's house, one…
of gloom and oppressive brutality. The attitudes of the times towards sex and women are bitterly attacked and ridiculed. Sequel to "In an iron glove" (DC00901). 1975, c1968. Uniform title: Dans un gant de fer, v. 2, La joue droite.The railway man
By Eric Lomax. 1995
Eric Lomax, a railway enthusiast, was taken prisoner in Malaya in 1941 while serving with the Signal Corps. He was…
put to work on the Burma-Siam railway; and he helped to build an illicit radio with which to follow the progress of the war. The discovery of the radio brought on two years of dreadful torture and distress - one tormentor in particular remained in Lomax's memory for half a century. Late in life, Lomax learned how to believe in the possibility of hope. He then discovered that his Japanese interrogator was alive, and found out where he was with an extraordinary will to remember and forgive. 1995.The "Oxford English Dictionary" took seventy years to complete and drew upon the minds of thousands of scholars for its…
content. One of its most prolific contributors was Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon who had served in the civil war. The fact that Dr. Minor was insane, and a murderer, was not known to the editor of the dictionary for almost twenty years. 1998.