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Susanna Moodie: letters of a lifetime
By Susanna Moodie, Carl Ballstadt, Elizabeth Hopkins, Michael A Peterman. 1985
Follows Susanna, author of "Roughing it in the bush" (DC00892), from her Suffolk childhood and her experiences as an aspiring…
young writer in London, through her emigration to Upper Canada and five decades of Canadian life. c1985.Switchbacks: true stories from the Canadian Rockies
By Sid Marty. 1999
Sid Marty presents a collection of true Rock Mountain tales drawn on his own memories and those of friends and…
former colleagues. Among his subjects are: the old guide who built a staircase up a cliff; the stranded snowshoer who was rescued between rounds of beer in a Banff tavern; the man who catered to hungry grizzlies; an opinionated packrat with a gift for larceny; and a horse named Candy whose heart was as big as a stove. 1999.Survival in Auschwitz: the Nazi assault on humanity
By Primo Levi. 1996
In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and "Italian citizen of Jewish race" was arrested by Italian fascists and deported…
from his native Turin to Auschwitz. This is his account of his ten months in the German death camp, of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Included is a conversation between Philip Roth and Primo Levi never before published in book form. Descriptions of violence. 1996. Uniform title: Se questo è un uomo.Strange ghosts: essays
By Darren Greer. 2006
From baseball to Picasso, Oscar Wilde to Tennessee Williams, post-modernism to American foreign policy, these essays are a mix of…
polemic, politics, memoir, travelogue, and literary theory. Greer relates how his mother's obsession with baseball is overshadowed by her distaste for the American invasion of Iraq, and in some travel essays, he recounts being in India during the height of the Pakistan nuclear crisis, his conversations with monks in Cambodia, and his spiritual revelations in Venice. Some strong language. Some descriptions of sex. Some descriptions of violence. c2006.Stet: a memoir
By Diana Athill. 2001
For nearly five decades Diana Athill helped shape some of the finest books in modern literature. She edited (and nursed…
and coerced and coaxed) some of the most celebrated writers in the English language. The word 'stet' is an instruction on corrected proofs sent to a printer, meaning 'let the original stand'. This candid memoir writes 'stet' against the pleasures, intrigues and complexities of her life spent among authors and manuscripts. 2001.Somewhere towards the end: A Memoir
By Diana Athill. 2009
Diana Athill made her reputation as a writer with the candour of her memoirs. Now aged ninety, and freed from…
any inhibitions that even she may once have had, she reflects frankly on the losses and occasionally the gains that old age brings, and on the wisdom and fortitude required to face death. This is a lively narrative of events, lovers and friendships: the people and experiences that have taught her to regret very little, to resist despondency and to question the beliefs and customs of her own generation. 2009.Stories about storytellers: publishing Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, and others
By Anthony Jenkins, Douglas Gibson. 2011
An autobiography that reviews the author’s accomplishments working - and playing - alongside some of Canada’s greatest writers. Relates the…
projects he brainstormed for writer Barry Broadfoot, how he convinced eventual Nobel Prize contender Alice Munro to keep writing short stories, his early morning phone call from a former Prime Minister, and his recollection of yanking a manuscript right out of Alistair MacLeod’s own reluctant hands, which ultimately garnered MacLeod one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for fiction. Provides an inside view of Canadian publishing that is rarely revealed. Some strong language. 2011.Shirley, goodness & mercy: a childhood memoir
By Chris Wyk. 2005
Despite van Wyk's later becoming involved in the anti-apartheid 'struggle', this is not a book about racial politics. Instead, it…
is a delightful account of one boy's special relationship with the relatives, friends and neighbours - often decidedly quirky - who made up his community, and of the important coping role laughter and humour played during the years he spent in bleak, dusty townships. In the book, the author creates a remarkable record of life in the Coloured community, at once both informative and vastly entertaining. 2005.Something in the blood: the untold story of Bram Stoker, the man who wrote Dracula
By David J Skal. 2016
Bram Stoker, despite having a name nearly as famous as his legendary undead Count, has remained a puzzling enigma. Skal…
exhumes the inner world and strange genius of the writer who conjured an undying cultural icon. Stoker was inexplicably paralyzed as a boy, and his story unfolds against a backdrop of Victorian medical mysteries and horrors: cholera and famine fever, childhood opium abuse, frantic bloodletting, mesmeric quack cures, and the gnawing obsession with "bad blood" that informs every page of Dracula. Stoker's ambiguous sexuality is explored through his lifelong acquaintance and romantic rival, Oscar Wilde. The psychosexual dimensions of Stoker's passionate youthful correspondence with Walt Whitman, his punishing work ethic, and his slavish adoration of the actor Sir Henry Irving are examined in splendidly gothic detail. 2016.Something to declare: Essays
By Julia Alvarez. 1998
Alvarez, the author of "How the Garcia girls lost their accents" and other works, reminisces about her childhood in the…
Dominican Republic and her family's escape to New York City. Also describes how she became an author and how to experience the writing life. 1998.Small beneath the sky: a prairie memoir
By Lorna Crozier. 2009
Poet Crozier vividly depicts her hometown of Swift Current, with its one main street, two high schools, and three beer…
parlours - where her father spent most of his evenings. She writes unflinchingly about the grief and shame caused by poverty and alcoholism, while at the heart of the book is her fierce love for her mother, Peggy. The narratives of daily life - sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking - are interspersed with prose poems. Some strong language. 2009.Shirley Jackson: a rather haunted life
By Ruth Franklin. 2016
Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remains curiously absent from the…
American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author behind such classics as 'The Haunting of Hill House' and 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle'. Placing Jackson within an American gothic tradition of Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on "domestic horror" drawn from an era hostile to women. With its exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaged childhood and a troubled marriage, this is the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant. Winner of the 2017 Edgar Award for best critical / biography book. 2016.Storyteller: the authorized biography of Roald Dahl
By Donald Sturrock. 2010
Biography of writer Roald Dahl (1916-1990), author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (DC00453). Chronicles Dahl's English boarding-school education; World…
War II service that involved aerial combat and espionage; and family tragedies, including the death of his daughter Olivia and his first wife Patricia Neal's stroke. 2010.Stephen Leacock (Extraordinary Canadians)
By John Ralston Saul, Margaret MacMillan. 2009
Macmillan has great affection for Leacock's gentle wit and sharp-eyed insight. The renowned historian examines Leacock's life as a poor…
but ambitious student who rose to become an economist, celebrated academic, and, most importantly, the beloved humourist who taught Canadians to laugh at themselves. c2009.Sophia Tolstoy: a biography
By Alexandra Popoff. 2010
As Leo Tolstoy's wife, Sophia Tolstoy experienced both glory and condemnation during their forty-eight-year marriage. Drawing on newly available archival…
material, including Sophia's unpublished memoir, Alexandra Popoff presents a dramatically different and accurate portrait of the woman and the marriage. Some descriptions of sex. c2010.Starting out, 1920-1947
By Pierre Berton. 1987
Stay me, oh comfort me: journals and stories, 1933-1941
By M. F. K Fisher. 1993
Shortly before her death in 1992, Fisher decided to publish a memoir about the end of her first marriage and…
her brief, tragic second marriage. She wanted a record of how she felt at the time instead of a version reinterpreted by her older self. Fisher put together unpublished letters, short stories, and excerpts from journals of that period to tell her story. Sequel to "Long Ago in France" .1993.Stars come out within
By Jean Little. 1990
Renowned author Jean Little describes her childhood with a visual impairment, the early death of her father, the shock of…
losing her remaining sight to glaucoma, and her battle with depression. A talking computer and her guide dog, Zephyr, brought her independence and freedom. Sequel to "Little by Little".Song of Rita Joe: autobiography of Mi'kmaq poet
By Lynn Henry, Rita Joe. 1996
Mi'kmaq poet Rita Joe reflects on the tumultuous events of her life. Raised in foster homes and educated in an…
Indian residential school, she endured prejudice, sexism, and poverty. She began to write poetry, and soon discovered the voice through which she could reclaim her Aboriginal heritage. 1996.Song of Erne
By Robert Harbinson. 1987