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Malraux: A Life
By Olivier Todd. 0019
Writer, publisher, war hero, French government minister, André Malraux was renowned as a Renaissance man of the twentieth century. Now,…
Olivier Todd–author of the acclaimed biographyAlbert Camus–gives us this life, in which fact competes dramatically with his subject’s previously little-known mythomania. We see the adventurous young Malraux move from 1920s literary Paris to colonial Cambodia, Cochin China, and Spain in its civil war. Todd charts the thrilling exploits that would inspire such novels asMan’s Fate,but, just as fascinating, he also traces Malraux’s lifelong pattern of lies: claiming friendship with Mao, he was called to tutor Nixon, despite having met the Great Helmsman only once; a minor injury becomes in recollections a near-mortal battlefield wound; stories of heroism in the French Resistance omit to mention that Malraux joined up just a few weeks before the Allied landings. With meticulous research, Todd separates myth from reality to throw light on a brilliant con man who would become a national hero, but he also lets us see Malraux’s genuine achievements as both writer and man of action. His real life and the one he embroidered come together in this superb biography to reveal how Malraux, the protean genius, became his own greatest character. From the Hardcover edition.Native Wisdom for White Minds: Daily Reflections Inspired by the Native Peoples of the World
By Anne Wilson Schaef. 1995
You don't have to be white to have a white mind.What is a white mind? As Anne Wilson Schaef learned…
during her travels throughout the world among Native Peoples, anyone raised in modern Western society or by Western culture can have a white mind. White minds are trapped in a closed system of thinking that sees life in black and white, either/or terms; they are hierarchical and mechanistic; they see nature as a force to be tamed and people as objects to be controlled with no regard for the future.This worldview is not shared by most Native Peoples, and in this provocative book, Anne Wilson Schaef shares the richness poured out to her by Native Americans, Aborigines, Africans, Maoris, and others. In the words of Native Peoples themselves, we come to understand Native ideas about our earth, spirituality, family, work, loneliness, and change. For in every area of our lives we have the capacity to transcend our white minds--we simply need to listen with open hearts and open minds to other voices, other perceptions, other cultures.Anne Wilson Schaef often heard Elders from a wide variety of Native Peoples say, "Our legends tell us that a time will come when our wisdom and way of living will be necessary to save the planet, and that time is now." Anyone ready to move from feeling separate to a profound sense of connectedness, from the personal to the global, will find the path in this mind-expanding, deeply spiritual book.My Father and Myself
By W. H. Auden, J. R. Ackerley. 1968
When his father died, J. R. Ackerley was shocked to discover that he had led a secret life. And after…
Ackerley himself died, he left a surprise of his own--this coolly considered, unsparingly honest account of his quest to find out the whole truth about the man who had always eluded him in life. But Ackerley's pursuit of his father is also an exploration of the self, making My Father and Myself a pioneering record, at once sexually explicit and emotionally charged, of life as a gay man. This witty, sorrowful, and beautiful book is a classic of twentieth-century memoir.Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings
By Mary Henley Rubio. 2008
Mary Henley Rubio has spent over two decades researching Montgomery's life, and has put together a comprehensive and penetrating picture…
of this Canadian literary icon, all set in rich social context. Extensive interviews with people who knew Montgomery - her son, maids, friends, relatives, all now deceased - are only part of the material gathered in a journey to understand Montgomery that took Rubio to Poland and the highlands of Scotland. From Montgomery's apparently idyllic childhood in Prince Edward Island to her passion-filled adolescence and young adulthood, to her legal fights as world-famous author, to her shattering experiences with motherhood and as wife to a deeply troubled man, this fascinating, intimate narrative of her life will engage and delight.From the Hardcover edition.NEW YORK JEW
By Alfred Kazin. 1978
Alfred Kazin, one of the central figures of America's intellectual life in the 20th century, takes us into his own…
life and times. His autobiography encompasses, within a single large, fluent narrative, a personal story openly told; an inside look at New York's innermost intellectual circles; and brilliantly astute observations of the literary accomplishments, atmosphere, and fads of the 1940's, '50's, and '60's in the context of America's shifting political gales. Kazin begins his story in 1940, where we see him first as a young man working for The New Republic, then for Fortune in the time of James Agee. We see him in wartime London; as traveler, after the war, in Italy, Germany, Russia and Israel. We see him as teacher and scholar; as husband and lover; as a writer of profoundly influential critical works; as both observer of and participant in the cultural history of his time. Marvelous scenes of close-up encounters with literary figures abound. The young Kazin, "summoned" to discuss his just-published first book, pays his first visit to the great Edmund Wilson (he was "merely impatient with my book") and his wife ("she went into my faults with great care...she looked beautiful in the increasing crispness of her analysis") Mary McCarthy. We see Lionel Trilling ("for Trilling I would always be 'too Jewish'"); Saul Bellow, soon after Augie March, already projecting a "sense of destiny as a novelist that excited everyone around him"; Sylvia Plath as a student of Kazin's at Smith. Kazin shares the particular joy of being in the company of Hannah Arendt--Hannah at work, "brimming over with enthusiasm for the New World," and in the Morningside Drive apartment where she and her husband, Heinrich Bluecher, lived "thought dominated" lives, and were magnets for young writers. We see old and young contemporaries--Robert Frost, Paul Goodman, T. S. Eliot, and others--freely expressing (and being) themselves. Every image and incident is filtered through Kazin's own strong sensibility--powerfully informed by his Russian immigrant-socialist background, by the resurgent sense of his own Jewishness, and by the "raw power, mass, and volume" of the city he is unfailingly drawn to. New York is itself a central character in his book as in his life--a life superbly told, in a book that will be of fascination to everyone interested in American writing and writers.May Sarton: Biography
By Margot Peters. 1997
The first biography of May Sarton: a brilliant revelation of the life and work of a literary figure who influenced…
her thousands of readers not only by her novels and poetry, but by her life and her writings about it.May Sarton's career stretched from 1930 (early sonnets published in Poetry magazine) to 1995 (her journal At Eighty-Two). She wrote more than twenty novels, and twenty-five books of poems and journals. The acclaimed biographer Margot Peters was given full access to Sarton's letters, journals, and notes, and during five years of research came to know Sarton herself--the complex woman and artist. She gives us a compelling portrait of Sarton the actress, the poet, the novelist, the feminist, the writer who struggled for literary acceptance. She shows us, beneath Sarton's exhilarating, irresistible spirit, the needy courtier and seducer, the woman whose creativity was propelled by the psychic drama she created in others.We watch young May at age two as she is abruptly uprooted from her native Belgium by World War I, a child ignored both by her mother, who was intent on her own artistic vision and reluctant to cope with a child, and by her father, obsessed with his academic research.We see Sarton as a young girl in America, and then later, at nineteen, choosing a life in the theatre, landing a job in Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory, and gathering what would become a tight-knit coterie of friends and lovers . . . Sarton beginning to write poetry and novels . . . Sarton making friends with Elizabeth Bowen and Julian Huxley, Erika and Klaus Mann, Virginia Woolf, the poet H.D.--charming and enlisting them with her work, her vitality, her hunger for love, driven by her need to conquer (among her conquests: Bowen, Huxley, and later his wife, Juliette). We see her intense friendships with literary pals, including Muriel Rukeyser (her lover), and Louise Bogan, Sarton's "literary sibling, who at once encouraged her and excluded her from a world in which Bogan was a central figure. We see Sarton begin to create in the spiritual journals that inspired the devotion of readers the image of a strong, independent woman who lived peacefully with solitude--an image that contradicted the reality of her neediness, loneliness, and isolation as she pushed away loved ones with her demands and betrayals.A fascinating portrait of one of our major literary figures--a book that for the first time reveals the life that she herself kept hidden.From the Hardcover edition.Monkeyfarts!: Wacky Jokes Every Kid Should Know
By David Borgenicht. 2012
From classic favorites to zany newcomers, Monkeyfarts! is packed to bursing with wild and wacky jokes about monsters, pirates, polar…
bears, super-heroes, hot dogs, Harry Potter, Vikings, elephants, vampires, and more. With hilarious jokes and bold illustrations, it's the only joke book you'll ever need. Who doesn't love Monkeyfarts!?A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY:A CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF ITS PLACE ON THE WORLD STAGE.Native American History is a…
breakthrough reference guide, the first book of its kind to recognize and explore the rich, unfolding experiences of the indigenous American peoples as they evolved against a global backdrop. This fascinating historical narrative, presented in an illuminating and thought-provoking time-line format, sheds light on such events as:* The construction of pyramids--not only on the banks of the Nile but also on the banks of the Mississippi * The development of agriculture in both Mesopotamia and Mexico* The European discovery of a continent already inhabited by some 50 million people * The Native American influence on the ideas of the European Renaissance* The unacknowledged advancements in science and medicine created by the civilizations of the new world* Western Expansion and its impact on Native American land and traditions* The key contributions Native Americans brought to the Allied victory of World War II And much more!This invaluable history takes an important first step toward a true understanding of the depth, breadth, and scope of a long-neglected aspect of our heritage.From the Trade Paperback edition.Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers
By Harry Bruce. 2009
A witty round-up of writers' habits that includes all the big names, such as Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Hemingway. At public…
events readers always ask writers how they write. The process fascinates them. Now they have a very witty book that ranges around the world and throughout history to answer their questions. All the great writers are here -- Dickens, dashing off his work; Henry James dictating it; Flaubert shouting each word aloud in the garden; Hemingway at work in cafés with his pencil. But pencil or pen, trusty typewriter or computer, they all have their advocates. Not to mention the writers who can only keep the words flowing by writing naked, or while walking or listening to music -- and generally obeying the most bizarre superstitions. On Shakespeare's works: "Fantastic. And it was all done with a feather!" -- Sam Goldwyn. "I write nude, seated on a thick towel, and perhaps with a second towel around me." -- Paul West. "I've never heard of anyone getting plumber's block, or traffic cop's block." -- Allan Gurganus. "I'm a drinker with a writing problem." -- Brendan Behan.My Dog Tulip
By Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, J. R. Ackerley. 1965
The distinguished British man of letters J. R. Ackerley hardly thought of himself as a dog lover when, well into…
middle age, he came into possession of a German shepherd. To his surprise, she turned out to be the love of his life, the "ideal friend" he had been searching for in vain for years. My Dog Tulip is a bittersweet retrospective account of their sixteen-year companionship, as well as a profound and subtle meditation on the strangeness that lies at the heart of all relationships. In vivid and sometimes startling detail, Ackerley tells of Tulip's often erratic behavior and very canine tastes, and of his own fumbling but determined efforts to ensure for her an existence of perfect happiness.Paul and Sandra Fierlinger's animated feature film of My Dog Tulip, starring Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, and Isabella Rossellini, was released in 2010.Practiced by such actors of stature as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, and Ellen Burstyn (not…
to mention the late James Dean) the Method offers a practical application of the renowned Stanislavsky technique.On Method Acting demystifies the "mysteries" of Method acting -- breaking down the various steps into clear and simple terms, including chapters on:Sense Memory -- the most vital component of Method actingImprovisation -- without it, the most integral part of the Method is lostAnimal Exercises -- just one way to combat the mental blocks that prevent actors from grasping a characterCreating The Outer Character -- so actors can give the freshness of originality to a role while at the same time living the life of the characterOn Method Acting is also an indispensable volume for directors, designers, lighting technicians, and anyone in the dramatic arts interested in creating a believable and realistic effect in their productions.Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker's Harold Ross
By Thomas Kunkel. 2000
These exhilarating letters--selected and introduced by Thomas Kunkel, who wrote Genius in Disguise, the distinguished Ross biography--tell the dramatic story…
of the birth of The New Yorker and its precarious early days and years. Ross worries about everything from keeping track of office typewriters to the magazine's role in wartime to the exact questions to be asked for a "Talk of the Town" piece on the song "Happy Birthday." We find Ross, in Kunkel's words, "scolding Henry Luce, lecturing Orson Welles, baiting J. Edgar Hoover, inviting Noel Coward and Ginger Rogers to the circus, wheedling Ernest Hemingway-- offering to sell Harpo Marx a used car and James Cagney a used tractor, and explaining to restaurateur-to-the-stars Dave Chasen, step by step, how to smoke a turkey." These letters from a supreme editor tell in his own words the story of the fierce, lively man who launched the world's most prestigious magazine.From the Hardcover edition.Newspaper Days: 1899-1906 (H.L. Mencken's Autobiography)
By H. L. Mencken. 1941
Living a Year of Kaddish: A Memoir
By Ari L. Goldman. 2003
The best-selling author of The Search for God at Harvard continues his spiritual quest in this heartfelt and poignant account…
of the year he spent saying kaddish for his father. The day after Ari Goldman celebrated his fiftieth birthday his father died of a heart attack, and Goldman began the ritual year of mourning required by Jewish law. There were the obligations (the daily recitation of kaddish in a synagogue quorum of ten), the prohibitions (no listening to music or buying new clothes), and the self-examination that the death of a parent and the mourning rituals triggered. Death meant coming to terms with a father he loved but never fully understood, in part because of his parents' divorce and its stormy aftermath. Goldman explores the emotional and spiritual aspects of spending a year in mourning, as he examines its effects on him as a husband, father, and member of his community. Left without parents (his mother died four years earlier), he is no longer a son to anyone, but he comes to understand that through the daily recitation of kaddish, he can both connect with and honor his mother and his father in a way that he could not always do during their lifetimes. And in his daily synagogue attendance--usually near his Manhattan home but also, during the course of his travels in Israel, the Catskills, and France--he finds his fellow worshipers to be an unexpected source of strength, wisdom, and comfort. Living a Year of Kaddish is a deeply affecting journey through grief, loss, and acceptance--a book that will resonate for people of all faiths who struggle with the inevitability of losing the ones they love.Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors (The Schocken Kafka Library)
By Franz Kafka. 1977
"These magnificent letters, meticulously set up and annotated, show us aspects of Kafka that were only hinted at in earlier…
collections and help us trace his development from unhappy young law student and insurance administrator to novelist and short-story writer of originality and genius."--Publishers Weekly"When we turn from Kafka's books to his letters we have a series of self-portraits desperate and courageous, always eager and warm in feeling; the self is lit by fantasy and, of course, by drollery. His candor is of the kind that flies alongside him in the air. He was a marvelous letter writer."--V.S. Pritchett, The New York Review of Books"These letters are like messages from the underground, from the dark side of the moon, presenting aspects of Kafka that would have died with his friends. We meet alternately Kafka the artist, friend, son, father figure, marriage counselor, literary critic, insurance official. . . . A full portrait, and a significant contribution to Kafka scholarship."--Smithsonian Magazine"An inside view of a writer who, perhaps more than any other novelist or poet in our century, stands at the center of our culture."--Robert Alter, The New York Times Book ReviewOn Six Continents: A Life In Canada's Foreign Service, 1966-2002
By James K. Bartleman. 2004
Muskoka, the University of Western Ontario, Ottawa, New York, Colombia, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Peru, Cuba, Israel, Belgium, South Africa, Australia -the…
place-names tell the story of an amazing career. Then there are the people involved -Trudeau, Clark, and Chrétien, Kissinger, Castro, Rabin, Walesa, Havel, Mandela and dozens of others. Not to mention the moments of high drama: when young Jim Bartleman becomes Ottawa's security expert on terrorism during the FLQ crisis in 1970; or when he leads the movement to bring countries like Poland and Ukraine into NATO and the West.But this is also a light-hearted look at what our diplomats actually do and is full of funny stories: so watch young Jim attend a drunken party with Trudeau; compete with Mother Teresa for Bangladesh babies; or sweep his Belgian bride off her feet to the altar. Bartleman also writes candidly about falling prey to depression, and about his concern, as a native Canadian, to see aboriginal peoples well treated. In summary, a richly varied career, as the only Canadian diplomat to serve on all six continents, well told by a remarkable character.***On Six Continents is a Douglas Gibson Book.From the Hardcover edition.Lessons at the Fence Post
By Paul D. Cummings. 1997
"Remember, life is a marathon and not a sprint.Train yourself to go the distance."The homespun wisdom that young Paul Cummings…
received while he and his granddad talked beside an Arkansas fence post has enriched his life beyond measure. Now he shares with us a treasure-trove of nearly two hundred inspiring insights into human nature and bedrock American values, a precious memento from a time that seems to have receded from memory. Yet as you will soon discover, a grandfather's good sense and warm-hearted words never lose relevance--especially in today's fast-paced world. Grandfather Cummings' thoughts are a family treasure. Now they can be your family treasure to pass down through the generations.From the Trade Paperback edition.My Century
By Richard Lourie, Czeslaw Milosz, Aleksander Wat. 1977
In My Century the great Polish poet Aleksander Wat provides a spellbinding account of life in Eastern Europe in the…
midst of the terrible twentieth century. Based on interviews with Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz, My Century describes the artistic, sexual, and political experimentation--in which Wat was a major participant--that followed the end of World War I: an explosion of talent and ideas which, he argues, in some ways helped to open the door to the destruction that the Nazis and Bolsheviks soon visited upon the world. But Wat's book is at heart a story of spiritual struggle and conversion. He tells of his separation during World War II from his wife and young son, of his confinement in the Soviet prison system, of the night when the sound of far-off laughter brought on a vision of "the devil in history." "It was then," Wat writes, "that I began to be a believer."Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West
By William Mckeen. 2011
True tales of writers and pirates, painters and potheads, guitar pickers and drug merchants in America's southernmost city For Hemingway…
and Fitzgerald, there was Paris in the twenties. For others, later, there was Greenwich Village, Big Sur, and Woodstock. But for an even later generation--one defined by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Tom McGuane, and Hunter S. Thompson--there was another moveable feast: Key West, Florida. The small town on the two-by-four-mile island has long been an artistic haven, a wild refuge for people of all persuasions, and the inspirational home for a league of great American writers. Some of the artists went there to be literary he-men. Some went to re-create themselves. Others just went to disappear--and succeeded. No matter what inspired the trip, Key West in the seventies was the right place at the right time, where and when an astonishing collection of artists wove a web of creative inspiration.Mile Marker Zero tells the story of how these writers and artists found their identities in Key West and maintained their friendships over the decades, despite oceans of booze and boatloads of pot, through serial marriages and sexual escapades, in that dangerous paradise.Unlike the "Lost Generation" of Paris in the twenties, we have a generation that invented, reinvented, and found itself at the unending cocktail party at the end--and the beginning--of America's highway.The Craft of Science Writing: Selections from The Open Notebook
By Siri Carpenter. 2020
This book is a collection of indispensable articles on the craft of science writing as told by some of the…
most skillful science journalists working today. These selections are a wealth of journalistic knowledge from The Open Notebook, the online community that has been a primary resource for science journalists and aspiring science writers for the last decade. The Craft of Science Writing gives you a crew of accomplished, encouraging friends to whisper over your shoulder as you work. In these pages, you'll find interviews with leading journalists offering behind-the-scenes inspiration, as well as in-depth essays on the craft offering practical advice.