Service Alert
Delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Showing 81 - 100 of 6222 items
By Richard Ben Cramer. 2002
Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed biographer of Joe DiMaggio decodes baseball icon Ted Williams and finds not…
just a great player, but also a great man.When legendary Red Sox hitter Ted Williams died on July 5, 2002, newspapers reviewed the stats, compared him to other legends of the game, and declared him the greatest hitter who ever lived.In 1986, Richard Ben Cramer spent months on a profile of Ted Williams, and the result was the Esquire article that has been acclaimed ever since as one of the finest pieces of sports reporting ever written.Given special acknowledgment in The Best American Sportswriting of the Century and adapted for a coffee-table book called Ted Williams: The Seasons of the Kid, the original piece is now available in this special edition, with new material about Williams's later years.While his decades after Fenway Park were out of the spotlight -- the way Ted preferred it -- they were arguably his richest, as he loved and inspired his family, his fans, the players, and the game itself. This is a remembrance for the ages.By Keith O'Brien. 2024
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A captivating chronicle of the incredible story of one of America&’s most iconic, charismatic, and still…
polarizing figures—baseball immortal Pete Rose—and an exquisite cultural history of baseball and America in the second half of the twentieth century • "Comprehensive, compulsively readable and wholly terrific."—The Wall Street Journal"Long before the inquiry into Ohtani's ties to betting, there was Pete Rose....Charlie Hustle chronicles one of the most polarizing figures in sports."—NPR, All Things Considered&“Baseball biography at its best. With Charlie Hustle, Pete Rose finally gets the book he deserves, and baseball fans get the book we&’ve been craving, a hard-hitting, beautifully-written tale that will stand for years to come as the definitive account of one of the most fascinating figures in American sports history.&”—Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of King: A LifePete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago that still stands today. He was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn&’t.In the 1980s, Pete Rose came to be at the center of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. He kept secrets, ran with bookies, took on massive gambling debts, and he was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. The revelations that followed ruined him, changed life in Cincinnati, and forever altered the game.Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America&’s most epic tragedies—the rise and fall of Pete Rose. Drawing on firsthand interviews with Rose himself and with his associates, as well as on investigators' reports, FBI and court records, archives, a mountain of press coverage, Keith O&’Brien chronicles how Rose fell so far from being America&’s &“great white hope.&” It is Pete Rose as we've never seen him before.This is no ordinary sport biography, but cultural history at its finest. What O&’Brien shows is that while Pete Rose didn&’t change, America and baseball did. This is the story of that change.By Derek Zumsteg. 2007
Ever see Mike Piazza block the plate? Or Derek Jeter slide hard into second? Illegal. But it happens every game.…
Baseball&’s rules, it seems, were made to be broken. And they are, by the players, the front office, and even sometimes the fans. Like it or not, cheating has been an integral part of America&’s favorite pastime since its inception. The Cheater&’s Guide to Baseball will show you how cheating is really done. In this lively tour through baseball&’s underhanded history, readers will learn how to cork a bat, steal signs, hurl a spitball, throw a World Series, and win at any cost! They&’ll also see the dirty little secrets of the game&’s greatest manipulators: John McGraw and Ty Cobb; Billy Martin and Gaylord Perry; Graig Nettles and Sammy Sosa; and, yes, even Barry Bonds. They&’ll find out how the Cleveland Indians doctored their basepaths to give new meaning to the term home field advantage. They&’ll delight in a hilarious examination of the Black Sox scandal, baseball&’s original sin. And, in the end, they&’ll come to understand that cheating is as much a part of baseball as pine tar and pinch hitters. And it&’s here to stay.By William Shakespeare. 1967
'The man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul' John DrydenAntonio, a…
Venetian merchant, wishes to help his friend get money to impress a rich heiress. But he is forced to borrow the sum from a cynical, abused Jewish moneylender, Shylock, and signs a chilling contract to honour the debt with a pound of his own flesh. An ambiguous, complex and controversial comedy, The Merchant of Venice explores prejudice, marriage, money and the true nature of justice in an unforgiving world.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by W. Moelwyn Merchant Introduction by Peter HollandBy Euripides. 1963
Medea/Hecabe/Electra/HeraclesFour devastating Greek tragedies showing the powerful brought down by betrayal, jealousy, guilt and hatredThe first playwright to depict suffering…
without reference to the gods, Euripides made his characters speak in human terms and face the consequences of their actions. In Medea, a woman rejected by her lover takes hideous revenge by murdering the children they both love, and Hecabe depicts the former queen of Troy, driven mad by the prospect of her daughter's sacrifice to Achilles. Electra portrays a young woman planning to avenge the brutal death of her father at the hands of her mother, while in Heracles the hero seeks vengeance against the evil king who has caused bloodshed in his family.Translated with an Introduction by PHILIP VELLACOTTBy Euripides. 1996
Alcestis/Medea/The Children of Heracles/Hippolytus'One of the best prose translations of Euripides I have seen' Robert FaglesThis selection of plays shows…
Euripides transforming the titanic figures of Greek myths into recognizable, fallible human beings. Medea, in which a spurned woman takes revenge upon her lover by killing her children, is one of the most shocking of all the Greek tragedies. Medea is a towering figure who demonstrates Euripides' unusual willingness to give voice to a woman's case. Alcestis is based on a magical myth in which Death is overcome, and The Children of Heracles examines conflict between might and right, while Hippolytus deals with self-destructive integrity. Translated by JOHN DAVIEBy William Shakespeare. 1969
'Language is his power. His characters are precisely the words they speak' A. S. Byatt A young man is condemned…
to death for breaking a law forbidding sex outside marriage. When his sister pleads with the Lord Angelo to save him, he offers her a bargain - her brother's life in exchange for her virginity. One of Shakespeare's most enigmatic plays, Measure for Measure is a morally complex drama of intricate moves and countermoves that explores falsehood, justice and humanity's best and basest instincts.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by J. M. NosworthyIntroduction by Julia BriggsBy William Shakespeare. 1967
'A supreme theatrical poem that has a language that eats into the soul' Michael Billington, GuardianShakeapeare's blood-soaked drama of murder,…
madness and the uncanny begins as Macbeth is promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by supernatural forces. Spurred on by his wife, he murders the king to ensure his ambitions come true. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, while the dead return to haunt him. Macbeth is an anatomy of fear and a bleak portrayal of what some will do to achieve their desires.General Introduction by STANLEY WELLS Edited by GEORGE HUNTER Introduction by CAROL CHILLINGTON RUTTERBy Aristophanes. 2002
The Acharnians/The Clouds/Lysistrata'We women have the salvation of Greece in our hands'Writing at a time of political and social crisis…
in Athens, the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes was an eloquent, yet bawdy, challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. In Lysistrata and The Acharnians, two pleas for an end to the long war between Athens and Sparta, a band of women on a sex strike and a lone peasant respectively defeat the political establishment. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Alan H. SommersteinBy Henrik Ibsen. 2014
Ibsen's greatest late plays in superb modern translations, part of the new Penguin Ibsen series. This volume includes The Master…
Builder, Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman and When We Dead Awaken - Ibsen's last four plays, written in his old age in Oslo. In The Master Builder, a married, middle-aged architect becomes bewitched by a strange young woman who claims to have known him for years. A sudden death in Little Eyolf is the catalyst that drives a couple into a greater understanding of themselves. In John Gabriel Borkman, a banker recently released from prison must choose between his wife and her sister, while a sculptor on holiday is reunited with the woman who inspired his greatest art in When We Dead Awaken. The new Penguin series of Ibsen's major plays offer the best available editions in English, under the general editorship of Tore Rem. All the plays have been freshly translated by leading translators and are based on the definitive Norwegian edition of Ibsen's works. This volume includes an introduction by Toril Moi on the themes of death and human limitation in the plays, and additional editorial apparatus by Tore Rem. Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is often called 'the Father of Modern Drama'. Born in the small Norwegian town of Skien, he left Norway in 1864 for a twenty-one-year long voluntary exile in Italy and Germany. After successes with the verse dramas Brand and Peer Gynt, he turned to prose, writing his great twelve-play cycle of society dramas between 1877 and 1899. This included The Pillars of Society, A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman, and, finally, When We Dead Awaken. Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891 and died there at the age of seventy-eight. Barbara J. Haveland and Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife are both freelance literary translators. Toril Moi is Professor of English, Theater Studies and Philosophy at Duke University. Her books include Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism (2006). Tore Rem is Professor of British literature at the University of Oslo and author of Henry Gibson/Henrik Ibsen (2006).By Henrik Ibsen. 1958
The four plays in this volume, written late in Ibsen's career as a dramatist, move away from his earlier preoccupation…
with people at odds with society to instead explore the inward struggle with their own thoughts, feelings and dreams. The Master Builder (1892) depicts a powerful man whose illusions collapse in the face of a young woman's courageous common sense. In Rosmersholm (1886), an idealist is forced to question his beliefs and confront terrible truths about the past, while Little Eyolf (1894) portrays a man's self-deception, which brings both tragic repercussions for his family and new hope for their future. And in John Gabriel Borkman (1896), a dying woman returns to reclaim the affections and loyalty of her nephew, resulting in a bitter struggle with her sister.By Friedrich Schiller. 1998
This dramatic story recounts Mary, Queen of Scots's remaining days held captive in Fotheringay Castle. In scenes alternating between Mary's…
prison and Elizabeth's court at Westminster, Schiller's play gradually builds a compelling picture of a tragic heroine rising above her suffering to gain in insight and spiritual depth. In contrast Elizabeth, in turmoil over the correct course of action for her country and trapped by the cruel demands of Realpolitik, can achieve worldly victory only at a terrible moral cost. Culminating in a fictitious meeting of the two women, Mary Stuart is a dramatic meditation on the nature of political power, but also a deeply moving human tragedy that captures the emotional essence of complex events.By William Shakespeare. 1996
A King and his lords form an austere academy, swearing to have no contact with women for three years. But…
when the Princess of neighbouring France arrives with her female attendants, their pledge is quickly placed under strain. Soon all are in smitten and confusion abounds, as each struggles to secretly declare his love in this comedy of deception, desire and mistaken identity.By William Shakespeare. 1967
'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion…
men, groaning for burial'Fearful that Caesar will become a tyrant, his friends plot to assassinate him in order to save Rome. But the conspirators' high principles clash with personal malice and ambition, and as they vie to manipulate the mob, the nation is plunged into bloody civil war. A taut, profound drama exploring power and betrayal, Julius Caesar exposes the chasm between public appearance, political rhetoric and bitter reality.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by Norman Sanders Introduction by Martin WigginsBy Oscar Wilde. 2013
Beautiful, aristocratic, an adored wife and young mother, Lady Windermere is 'a fascinating puritan' whose severe moral code leads her…
to the brink of social suicide. The only one who can save her is the mysterious Mrs Erlynne whose scandalous relationship with Lord Windermere has prompted her fatal impulse. And Mrs Erlynne has a secret - a secret Lady windermere must never know if she is to retain her peace of mind.By Oscar Wilde. 2000
Lady Windermere's Fan/Salomé/A Woman of No Importance/An Ideal Husband/A Florentine Tragedy/The Importance of Being Earnest'To lose one parent may be…
regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness'The Importance of Being Earnest is a glorious comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette. Snobbery and hypocrisy are also laid bare in Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, while in Salomé and A Florentine Tragedy, Wilde uses historical settings to explore the complex relationship between sex and power. The range of these plays displays Wilde's delight in artifice, masks and disguises, and reveals the pretensions of the social world in which he himself played such a dazzling and precarious part.Edited with Introduction, Commentaries and Notes by Richard Allen CaveBy William Shakespeare. 1972
'The most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world' Percy Bysshe ShelleyShakespeare's bleak and brutal tragedy begins…
when an ageing king, seeking a successor, rejects the young daughter who loves him and misplaces his trust in her malevolent sisters. In return they strip him of his power and condemn him to a wretched wasteland of horror and insanity. Set in a pitiless universe, King Lear is a towering, elemental masterpiece of fierce poetry and vast imaginative scope.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by George HunterIntroduction by Kiernan RyanBy William Shakespeare. 1974
Under the rule of King John, England is forced into war when the French challenge the legitimacy of John's claim…
to the throne and determine to install his nephew Arthur in his place. But political principles, hypocritically flaunted, are soon forgotten, as the French and English kings form an alliance based on cynical self-interest. And as the desire to cling to power dominates England's paranoid and weak-willed king, his country is threatened with disaster.By R. C. Sherriff. 1993
Set in the First World War, Journey's End concerns a group of British officers on the front line and opens…
in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed ...Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of Journey's End in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a remarkable anti-war classic.By Royall Tyler. 1992
Japanese nõ theatre or the drama of 'perfected art' flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries largely through the genius…
of the dramatist Zeami. An intricate fusion of music, dance, mask, costume and language, the dramas address many subjects, but the idea of 'form' is more central than 'meaning' and their structure is always ritualized. Selected for their literary merit, the twenty-four plays in this volume dramatize such ideas as the relationship between men and the gods, brother and sister, parent and child, lover and beloved, and the power of greed and desire. Revered in Japan as a cultural treasure, the spiritual and sensuous beauty of these works has been a profound influence for English-speaking artists including W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound and Benjamin Britten.