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The Man behind the Beard: Deneys Schreiner, a South African Liberal Life
By Graham Dominy. 2024
Deneys Schreiner was an academic, a scientist and a man of strong liberal principles, with a good sense of humor and…
widespread interests in the sciences, arts and public affairs. In his steady way, he transformed the University of Natal and the community around it. Between the 1960s and 1980s, Schreiner supported and initiated several endeavors to promote constitutional futures other than those imposed by the apartheid government. One of the most significant was the Buthelezi Commission, which he chaired. This biography sets out the context of the times in which Schreiner lived and his life from his ancestors to his tenure as Vice-Principal. This book is created with extensive archival research, supported by interviews with family members, former colleagues, friends, and journalists. Schreiner was a man who made a considerable contribution to the struggle for democracy in South Africa. And then there is the story of his beard, once described as a potent symbol of his presence and implacable integrity. Print edition not for sale in Sub Saharan Africa.God's Scrivener: The Madness and Meaning of Jones Very
By Clark Davis. 2023
A biography of a long-forgotten but vital American Transcendentalist poet. In September of 1838, a few months after Ralph…
Waldo Emerson delivered his controversial Divinity School address, a twenty-five-year-old tutor and divinity student at Harvard named Jones Very stood before his beginning Greek class and proclaimed himself “the second coming.” Over the next twenty months, despite a brief confinement in a mental hospital, he would write more than three hundred sonnets, many of them in the voice of a prophet such as John the Baptist or even of Christ himself—all, he was quick to claim, dictated to him by the Holy Spirit. Befriended by the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement, Very strove to convert, among others, Elizabeth and Sophia Peabody, Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and most significantly, Emerson himself. Though shocking to some, his message was simple: by renouncing the individual will, anyone can become a “son of God” and thereby usher in a millennialist heaven on earth. Clark Davis’s masterful biography shows how Very came to embody both the full radicalism of Emersonian ideals and the trap of isolation and emptiness that lay in wait for those who sought complete transcendence. God’s Scrivener tells the story of Very’s life, work, and influence in depth, recovering the startling story of a forgotten American prophet, a “brave saint” whose life and work are central to the development of poetry and spirituality in America.The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel: John Williams, Stoner, and the Writing Life
By Charles Shields. 2018
An &“engrossing&” biography of a brilliant novelist underappreciated in his own time who became a twenty-first-century bestseller, from the New…
York Times–bestselling author (The New Yorker). When Stoner was published in 1965, the novel sold only a couple of thousand copies before disappearing with hardly a trace. Yet the quietly powerful tale of Midwestern college professor William Stoner, whose life becomes a parable of solitude and anguish, eventually found an admiring audience in America and especially in Europe. The New York Times called Stoner &“a perfect novel,&” and a host of writers and critics, including Colum McCann, Julian Barnes, Bret Easton Ellis, Ian McEwan, Emma Straub, Ruth Rendell, C.P. Snow, and Irving Howe, praised its artistry. The New Yorker deemed it &“a masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man.&” This biography traces the life of Stoner&’s author, John Williams. Charles J. Shields follows the whole arc of Williams&’s life, which in many ways paralleled that of his titular character, from their shared working-class backgrounds to their undistinguished careers in academia. Shields vividly recounts Williams&’s development as an author, whose other works include the novels Butcher&’s Crossing and Augustus (for the latter, Williams shared the 1972 National Book Award). Shields also reveals the astonishing afterlife of Stoner, which garnered new fans with each American reissue, and then became a bestseller all over Europe after a Dutch publisher brought out a translation in 2013. Since then, Stoner has been published in twenty-one countries and sold over a million copies. &“Like Williams, Shields know how to tell a good story, one that will appeal especially to those interested in the ins and outs of the publishing industry and the ups and downs of a writer&’s life.&” —Los Angeles Review of BooksAn &“irresistible&” account of a little-known literary salon and creative commune in 1940s Brooklyn (The Washington Post Book World). …
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year February House is the true story of an extraordinary experiment in communal living, one involving young but already iconic writers—and America&’s best-known burlesque performer—in a house at 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn. It was a fevered yearlong party, fueled by the appetites of youth and a shared sense of urgency to take action as artists in the months before the country entered World War II. In spite of the sheer intensity of life at 7 Middagh, the house was for its residents a creative crucible. Carson McCullers&’s two masterpieces, The Member of the Wedding and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, were born, bibulously, in Brooklyn. Gypsy Rose Lee, workmanlike by day, party girl by night, wrote her book The G-String Murders in her Middagh Street bedroom. W. H. Auden—who, along with Benjamin Britten, was being excoriated back in England for absenting himself from the war—presided over the house like a peevish auntie, collecting rent money and dispensing romantic advice. And yet all the while, he was composing some of the most important work of his career. Enlivened by primary sources and an unforgettable story, this tale of daily life at the most fertile and improbable live-in salon of the twentieth century comes from the acclaimed author of Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York&’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel. &“Brimming with information . . . The personalities she depicts [are] indelibly drawn.&” —Los Angeles Times Book Review &“Magnificent . . . Not to mention funny and raunchy.&” —The Seattle TimesThe Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1944–1947 (The Diaries of Anaïs Nin #4)
By Anaïs Nin. 1972
The fourth volume of &“one of the most remarkable diaries in the history of letters&” (Los Angeles Times). The renowned…
diarist continues her record of her personal, professional, and artistic life, recounting her experiences in Greenwich Village for several years in the late 1940s, where she defends young writers against the Establishment—and her trip across the country in an old Ford to California and Mexico. &“[Nin is] one of the most extraordinary and unconventional writers of [the twentieth] century.&” —The New York Times Book Review Edited and with a preface by Gunther StuhlmannThe Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1939–1944: 1939-1944 (The Diaries of Anaïs Nin #3)
By Anaïs Nin. 1971
The third volume of &“one of the most remarkable diaries in the history of letters&” (Los Angeles Times). This candid…
volume from the renowned diarist covers her years of struggle, and eventual triumph, as an author in America during World War II. &“Transcending mere self-revelation . . . the diary examines human personality with a depth and understanding seldom surpassed since Proust . . . dream and fact are balanced and . . . in their joining lie the elements of masterpiece.&” —The Washington Post &“Just one page of Nin&’s extraordinary diaries contains more sex, melodrama, fantasies, confessions, and observations than most novels, and reflects much about the human psyche we strive to repress.&” —Booklist Edited and with a preface by Gunther StuhlmannThe trailblazing memoirist and author of Henry & June recounts her relationships with Henry Miller and others—including her own father.…
Anaïs Nin wrote in her uncensored diaries like they were a broad-minded confidante with whom she shared the liberating psychosexual dramas of her life. In this continuation of her notorious Henry & June, she recounts a particularly turbulent period between 1932 and 1934, and the men who dominated it: her protective husband, her therapist, and the poet Antonin Artaud. However, most consuming of all is novelist Henry Miller—a man whose genius, said Anaïs, was so demonic it could drive people insane. Here too, recounted in extraordinary detail, is the sexual affair she had with her father. At once loving, exciting, and vengeful, it was the ultimate social transgression for which Anaïs would eventually seek absolution from her analysts. &“Before Lena Dunham there was Anaïs Nin. Like Dunham, she&’s been accused of narcissism, sociopathy, and sexual perversion time and again. Yet even that comparison undercuts the strangeness and bravery of her work, for Nin was the first of her kind. And, like all truly unique talents, she was worshipped by some, hated by many, and misunderstood by most . . . A woman who&’d spent decades on the bleeding edge of American intellectual life, a woman who had been a respected colleague of male writers who pushed the boundaries of acceptable sex writing. Like many great . . . experimentalists, she wrote for a world that did not yet exist, and so helped to bring it into being.&” —The Guardian Includes an introduction by Rupert PoleThe Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1947–1955: 1947–1955 (The Diaries of Anaïs Nin #5)
By Anaïs Nin. 1975
The fifth volume of &“one of the most remarkable diaries in the history of letters&” (Los Angeles Times). Spanning…
from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, this volume covers the author&’s experiences in Mexico, California, New York, and Paris; her psychoanalysis; and her experiment with LSD. &“Through her own struggling and dazzling courage [Nin has] shown women . . . groping with and growing with the world.&” —Minneapolis Tribune Edited and with a preface by Gunther StuhlmannManhattan, When I Was Young: A Memoir
By Mary Cantwell. 1995
A &“wonderful memoir&” of a woman&’s life as a fashion-magazine writer in 1950s and &’60s New York (Publishers Weekly). Mary…
Cantwell arrived in Manhattan one summer in the early 1950s with eighty dollars, a portable typewriter, a wardrobe of unsuitable clothes, a copy of The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a boyfriend she was worried might be involved with the Communists, and no idea how to live on her own. She moved to the Village because she had heard of it, and worked at Mademoiselle because that was where the employment agency sent her. In this evocative and unflinching book, Cantwell recalls the city she knew back then by revisiting five apartments in which she lived. Her memoir vividly recreates both a particular golden era in New York City and the sometimes painful, sometimes exhilarating process of forging a self.Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather
By Benjamin Taylor. 2023
A tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century and an elegant exploration of artistic endurance,…
as told by a lifelong lover of Willa Cather&’s workThe story of Willa Cather is defined by a lifetime of determination, struggle, and gradual emergence. Some show their full powers early, yet Cather was the opposite—she took her time and transformed herself by stages. The writer who leapt to the forefront of American letters with O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918) was already well into middle age. Through years of provincial journalism in Nebraska, brief spells of teaching, and editorial work on magazines, she persevered in pursuit of the ultimate goal—literary immortality.Unlike Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, her idealism was unironic, and she stood alone among the great modern authors—at odds with the fashionable attitudes of her time. Combining intricate analysis with an empathetic, lyrical voice, Benjamin Taylor uncovers the reality of Cather&’s artistic development, from modest beginnings to the triumphs of her mature years. His book is simultaneously an homage to her character, a warm consideration of her work, and a case being made to read Cather with renewed vigor.Storytellers: Questions, Answers and the Craft of Journalism
By Leigh Sales. 2023
Highly respected ABC anchor, bestselling author and hit podcaster Leigh Sales interviews the cream of Australian journalists about their craft…
– how (and why) they bring us the stories that inform our lives. Leigh Sales is one of Australia&’s most accomplished journalists, having anchored the ABC&’s flagship 7.30 program for twelve years. She has been a foreign correspondent, hosted Lateline and anchored numerous elections for the ABC. In this book, she turns her interviewing skills onto her own profession, those usually asking the questions: the journalists. In ten sections – from News Reporting to Editing, via Investigative, Commentary and of course Interviewing – Sales takes us on a tour of the profession, letting the leaders in their field talk direct to us about how they get their leads, survive in war zones, write a profile, tell a story with pictures, and keep the show on the road. A who&’s-who of Australian journalism – including Lisa Millar, Kate McClymont, Hedley Thomas, Trent Dalton, Benjamin Law, Tracy Grimshaw, Richard Fidler, David Speers, Stan Grant, Niki Savva, Waleed Aly, Annabel Crabb, Karl Stefanovic and Mia Freedman – talk candidly about their greatest lessons and their trade secrets. A fascinating insight into a vital and much-misunderstood profession, Storytellers is a book for anyone who&’s ever wanted to be a journalist, or even just wondered how the news gets made.Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time has captured the imagination of millions - from literary sensation to timeless classic and…
now a major motion picture starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Storm Reid, and Mindy Kaling. A Light So Lovely tells the story of the woman at the center of it all - her imagination, her faith, her pattern of defying categories, and what readers today can learn from her legacy.Bestselling and beloved author Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery winner for A Wrinkle in Time, was known the world round for her imaginative spirit and stories. She was also known to spark controversy - too Christian for some, too unorthodox for others. Somewhere in the middle was a complex woman whose embrace of paradox has much to say to a new generation of readers today. A Light So Lovely paints a vivid portrait of this enigmatic icon's spiritual legacy, starting with her inner world and expanding into fresh reflections of her writing for readers today. Listen in on intimate interviews with L'Engle's literary contemporaries such as Philip Yancey and Luci Shaw, L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, and influential fans such as Makoto Fujimura, Nikki Grimes, and Sarah Bessey, as they reveal new layers to the woman behind the stories we know and love. A vibrant, imaginative read, this book pulls back the curtain to illuminate L'Engle's creative journey, her persevering faith, and the inspiring, often unexpected ways these two forces converged. For anyone earnestly searching the space between sacred and secular, miracle and science, faith and art, come and find a kindred spirit and trusted guide in Madeleine - the Mrs Whatsit to our Meg Murry - as she sparks our imagination anew.Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan
By Donald Keene. 2008
&“Few memoirs have the concision, modesty, and charm that mark this late-life work by . . . America&’s most renowned…
scholar and interpreter of Japan.&”—Foreword Reviews In this eloquent and wholly absorbing memoir, the renowned scholar Donald Keene shares more than half a century of his extraordinary adventures as a student of Japan. Keene begins with an account of his bittersweet childhood in New York; then he describes his initial encounters with Asia and Europe and the way in which World War II complicated that experience. He captures the sights, scents, and sounds of Japan as they first enveloped him, and talks of the unique travels and well-known intellectuals who later shaped the contours of his academic career. Keene traces the movement of his passions with delicacy and subtlety, deftly weaving his love for Japan into a larger narrative about identity and home and the circumstances that led a Westerner to find solace in a country on the opposite side of the world. Chronicles of My Life is not only a fascinating tale of two cultures colliding, but also a thrilling account of the emotions and experiences that connect us all, regardless of our individual origins. &“Lovingly illustrated by the artist Akira Yamaguchi, the book limns a life inseparably linked to its dominant passion . . . The history is fascinating, and the literary life Keene has doggedly carved out of it, remarkable.&”—Time, Asia Edition &“Keene&’s book soars, largely because of his intriguing, highly personal account of the literary milieu of Japan, particularly its drama, whether on stage or screen . . . [An] engaging and eloquent memoir.&”—Times Literary SupplementWar Diaries, 1939–1945
By Astrid Lindgren. 2016
These personal diaries by the author of Pippi Longstocking chronicle her experiences in Europe during WWII and her astute observations…
of the conflict.Before she became internationally known for her Pippi Longstocking books, Astrid Lindgren was an aspiring author living in Stockholm with her family at the outbreak of the Second World War. The diaries she kept throughout the hostilities offer her unique perspective—as a civilian, a mother, and an aspiring writer—on the devastating conflict. Lindgren emerges as a morally courageous critic of violence and war, as well as a deeply sensitive and keen observer of world affairs. We hear her thoughts about rationing, blackouts, the Soviet invasion of Finland, and the nature of evil, as well as of her personal heartbreaks, financial struggles, and trials as a mother and writer.Posthumously published in Sweden to great international acclaim, these diaries were called in the Swedish press an “unparalleled war narrative,” “unprecedented.” and a “shocking history lesson.” Illustrated with family photographs, newspaper clippings, and facsimile pages, Lindgren’s diaries provide an intensely personal and vivid account of Europe during the war.The Book of Separation: A Memoir
By Tova Mirvis. 2016
The memoir of a woman who leaves her faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain…
of a newly mapless world Born and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. After all, to observe was to be accepted and to be accepted was to be loved. She married a man from within the fold and quickly began a family. But over the years, her doubts became noisier than her faith, and at age forty she could no longer breathe in what had become a suffocating existence. Even though it would mean the loss of her friends, her community, and possibly even her family, Tova decides to leave her husband and her faith. After years of trying to silence the voice inside her that said she did not agree, did not fit in, did not believe, she strikes out on her own to discover what she does believe and who she really is. This will mean forging a new way of life not just for herself, but for her children, who are struggling with what the divorce and her new status as &“not Orthodox&” mean for them. This is a memoir about what it means to decide to heed your inner compass at long last. To free the part of yourself that has been suppressed, even if it means walking away from the only life you&’ve ever known. Honest and courageous, Tova takes us through her first year outside her marriage and community as she learns to silence her fears and seek adventure on her own path to happiness.A Mysterious Something in the Light: Raymond Chandler: A Life
By Tom Williams. 2012
“A remarkably detailed portrait of the famously hard-boiled writer” and creator of the popular gumshoe, Philip Marlowe (Publishers Weekly).What we…
know of Raymond Chandler is shrouded in secrets and half-truths as deceptive as anything in his magisterial novel The Long Goodbye. Now, drawing on new interviews, previously unpublished letters, and archives on both sides of the Atlantic, literary gumshoe Tom Williams casts light on this most mysterious of writers.The Chandler revealed is a man troubled by loneliness and desertion from an early age—experiences that fueled his writing as much as they scarred his life. Born in Chicago in 1888, his childhood was overshadowed by the cruel collapse of his parents’ marriage and his father’s alcohol-fueled violence. After his mother fled America, Chandler was schooled in London, but felt constrained by the stuffy English class system, eventually returning to the land of his birth, where—in corruption-ridden Los Angeles—he met his one great love: Cissy Pascal, a married woman eighteen years his senior.It was only during middle age, after his own alcoholism wrecked a lucrative career as an oilman, that Chandler seriously turned to crime fiction, although his success was to prove bittersweet. An obsessive attitude towards his craft, unrealized literary ambitions and a suicidal turn after Cissy’s death combined to prevent him from recapturing the verve of his earlier writing. But his legacy—the lonely, ambiguous world of Philip Marlowe—endures, compelling generation after generation of crime writers to go down mean streets.In this long-awaited new biography, the most thorough and comprehensive yet written, Tom Williams shadows one of the twentieth century’s true literary giants and considers how crime was raised to the level of art.Praise for A Beautiful Something in the Light“Williams dutifully records these facts but deftly keeps the reader interested. . . . [A Beautiful Something in the Light] is well researched, but because it is so well written it should be of interest to scholars and mystery fans alike.” —Washington Independent Review of Books“Outstanding. . . . Williams writes sensitively about the Cissy relationship and delves illuminatingly into the composition of Chandler’s masterpieces. . . . Thanks to his biography Chandler himself is a less mysterious something than he was.” —Sunday Times (UK)“Precise, kindly, and necessary.” —Scotland on Sunday (UK)“A clear-eyed, compassionate biography.” —Kirkus ReviewsNecropolis (Russian Library)
By Vladislav Khodasevich. 2019
In this unique literary memoir, &“the greatest Russian poet of our time&” pays tribute to the major authors of Russian Symbolist movement (Vladimir…
Nabokov).In Necropolis, the poet Vladislav Khodasevich turns to prose to memorializes some of the greatest writers of late 19th and early 20th century Russia. In the process, he delivers an insightful and intimate eulogy of the era. Recalling figures including Alexander Blok, Sergey Esenin, Fyodor Sologub, and the socialist realist Maxim Gorky, Khodasevich reveals how their lives and artworks intertwined, including a notorious love triangle among Nina Petrovskaya, Valery Bryusov, and Andrei Bely. Khodasevich testifies to the seductive and often devastating Symbolist ideal of turning one&’s life into a work of art. He notes how this ultimately left one man with the task of memorializing his fellow artists after their deaths. Khodasevich&’s portraits deal with revolution, disillusionment, emigration, suicide, the vocation of the poet, and the place of the artist in society. Personal and deeply perceptive, Necropolis show the early twentieth-century Russian literary scene in a new light.Brief Lives: Henry James (Brief Lives)
By Hazel Hutchison. 2012
Henry James is famed for the psychological depth of his characters and his remarkable ability to penetrate the inner life,…
yet the story of his own inner life remains curiously obscure— until now The best known facts about James— his illustrious, wealthy family and famous siblings; his prolific literary output with its numerous quirky female heroines; his long-term bachelorhood and the rumors that accompanied it; and his flamboyant adoption of British citizenship in 1915— have created a certain mythology surrounding the author. In this succinct new biography, Hazel Hutchison examines the man behind the writing. Exploring the author's life, works, and critical heritage, this fresh take on one of the central figures in the English canon is perfect for both the general reader as well as the James enthusiast.How Not to Get Rich: The Financial Misadventures of Mark Twain
By Alan Crawford. 2017
&“Crawford captures the energy, humor, and wide-eyed hope of America&’s first &‘angel investor&’ with wit and verve . . . A book that…
is worthy of Twain himself&” (Dan Lyons, New York Times–bestselling author of Disrupted). A Wealth Management Best Business Book of 2017 Mark Twain&’s lifetime spans America&’s era of greatest economic growth. And Twain was an active, even giddy, participant in all the great booms and busts of his time, launching himself into one harebrained get-rich scheme after another. But far from striking it rich, the man who coined the term &“Gilded Age&” failed with comical regularity to join the ranks of plutocrats who made this period in America notorious for its wealth and excess. Instead, Twain&’s mining firm failed, despite striking real silver. He ended up somehow owing money over his seventy thousand acres of inherited land. And his plan to market the mysteriously energizing coca leaves from the Amazon fizzled when no ships would sail to South America. Undaunted, Twain poured his money into the latest newfangled inventions of his time, all of which failed miserably. In Crawford&’s hilarious telling, the familiar image of Twain takes on a new and surprising dimension. Twain&’s story of financial optimism and perseverance is a kind of cracked-mirror history of American business itself—in its grandest cockeyed manifestations, its most comical lows, and its determined refusal to ever give up. &“Light and frothy, this humorous biography is a lively read.&” —Kirkus ReviewsEugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts (American Critical Archives Ser.)
By Robert Dowling. 2014
An &“absorbing&” biography of the playwright and Nobel laureate that &“unflinchingly explores the darkness that dominated O&’Neill&’s life&” (Publishers Weekly).…
This extraordinary biography fully captures the intimacies of Eugene O&’Neill&’s tumultuous life and the profound impact of his work on American drama, innovatively highlighting how the stories he told for the stage interweave with his actual life stories as well as the culture and history of his time. Much is new in this extensively researched book: connections between O&’Neill&’s plays and his political and philosophical worldview; insights into his Irish American upbringing and lifelong torment over losing faith in God; his vital role in African American cultural history; unpublished photographs, including a unique offstage picture of him with his lover Louise Bryant; new evidence of O&’Neill&’s desire to become a novelist and what this reveals about his unique dramatic voice; and a startling revelation about the release of Long Day&’s Journey Into Night in defiance of his explicit instructions. This biography is also the first to discuss O&’Neill&’s lost play Exorcism (a single copy of which was only recently recovered), a dramatization of his own suicide attempt. Written with both a lively informality and a scholar&’s strict accuracy, Eugene O&’Neill: A Life in Four Acts is a biography worthy of America&’s foremost playwright. &“Fast-paced, highly readable . . . building to a devastating last act.&” —Irish Times