Authors

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain.

From the political writer and podcaster, a ferociously honest and disarmingly funny memoir about her elusive mother’s encroaching dementia and a reckoning with her complicated childhood

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation....

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a modern American classic....

Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have....

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley....

Over a quarter of a century after its first publication, the great and simple wisdom in this book continues to influence women's lives....

David Sedaris' new collection of essays - including live recordings! - tells a most unconventional life story. It begins with a North Carolina childhood filled with speech-therapy classes...

An extraordinary work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse.

From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him.

In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion explores with electric honesty and passion a private yet universal experience....

Bloomsbury presents The Loves of My Life by the legendary author Edmund White, a stunning, revelatory memoir of a lifetime of gay love and sex. Read by Joel Froomkin.

Thoreau's classic account of the solitary life describes his attempts to simplify his life and sort out his priorities by living alone in a cabin beside Walden Pond for nearly two years....

In this book, C.S. Lewis tells of his search for joy, a spiritual journey that led him from the Christianity of his early youth into atheism and then back to Christianity....

In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known - and controversial - writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end, fits into none of them....

Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One explores the critical junctions in his life and career....

Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars....

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Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou's path to living well and living a life with meaning....

Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him, and learned to live again.

New York Times best-selling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers....

In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border....

The New York Times bestselling, hilarious tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood that Oprah.com calls the best memoir of a generation....

From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars comes an enthralling literary adventure that introduces listeners to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the 20th century. Many know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature....

Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of a famous woman, writer Erica Jong, whose sensational book Fear of Flying launched her into second-wave feminist stardom. She grew up yearning for a connection with her dreamy, glamorous, just out of reach mother, who always seemed to be heading somewhere that wasn’t with Molly. When, in 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia just as Molly’s husband discovered he had a rare cancer, Jong-Fast was catapulted into a transformative year.

In the six lectures of Margaret Atwood: A Modern Myth-Maker, Dr. Jennifer Cognard-Black will take you on a thorough exploration of Atwood’s most celebrated novel to examine the many ways this book has transcended its dystopian roots to become something more than a tale of, “What if?” Over the course of these lectures, you’ll examine the social, political, cultural, and spiritual impact of the novel—and of Atwood herself—as you dive deep into the text to unravel its themes and inspirations.

Over the course of his sixty-year career, Elmore Leonard, “the Dickens of Detroit,” published forty-five novels that have had enduring appeal to readers around the world. Revered by Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Raymond Carver, and Stephen King, his books were innovative in their blending of a Hemingway-inspired noirish minimalism and a masterful use of realistic dialogue over exposition—a direct evolution spurred by his years as a screenwriter. C. M. Kushins tells Leonard’s full life story.

America, 2003: A country at war, its shiny veneer beginning to crack. Von Dutch and The Simple Life dominate. And on the cover of every magazine, a twenty-one-year-old pop star named Britney Spears. Tracking her every move for a third-tier gossip rag in Los Angeles was an unknown young writer taking whatever job he could while pursuing his distant literary dreams. He'd instead become an eyewitness to the slow tragedy of a changing nation, represented in spirit by “the coy it-girl at the end of history.”

Featuring over one hundred interviews with family, friends, peers, and others—not to mention countless exchanges with Tim O'Brien himself—Peace Is a Shy Thing provides a nearly day-by-day, gripping account of O'Brien's thirteen months as an infantryman in Vietnam and gives equal diligence to reconstructing O'Brien's writing process.

The only child of a sheet-metal worker and a dinner lady who worked at the canteen of the local school, Geoff Dyer grew up in a world shaped by memories of the Depression and the Second World War. But far from being a story of hardship overcome, this loving memoir is a celebration of opportunities afforded by the post-war settlement, of which the author was an unconscious beneficiary. The crux comes at the age of eleven with the exam that decided the future of generations of British schoolkids: secondary modern or the transformative possibilities of grammar school?

In 1983, Thomas Mallon was still unknown. A literature professor at Vassar College, he spent his days traveling from Manhattan to campus, reviewing books to make ends meet and searching the city for his own purpose and fulfillment. The AIDS epidemic was beginning to surge in New York City, the ever-bustling epicenter of literary culture and gay life, alive with parties, art, and sex. Though he didn’t know it, everything would soon change for Mallon.

Charles Handy is one of the giants of contemporary thought. His books on management – including Understanding Organizations and Gods of Management – have changed the way we view business. His work on broader issues and trends – such as Beyond Certainty and The Second Curve – has changed the way we view society. In his new book, Handy, looking back over a rich and varied life, shares the lessons he has learned along the way. What things really matter? What daily worries should we learn to treat as unimportant? How do we become more accepting of ourselves and of those around us?

We’ve all heard the story about waking up as a cockroach—but what if a crisis turned you into a clam? After the dissolution of her marriage, a writer is transformed into a “clam” via typo after her mother keeps texting her to “clam down.” The funny if unhelpful command forces her to ask what it means to “clam down”—to retreat, hide, close up, and stay silent. Idiomatically, we are said to “clam up” when we can’t speak, and to “come out of our shell” when we reemerge, transformed.

Author Sharon Kitchens identifies the locations that serve as the basis for King's fictional towns of Castle Rock, Jerusalem's Lot, Derry, and Haven. Drawing on historical materials and conversations with locals and people who know King, the author sheds light on daily life in places that would become the settings for Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Dead Zone, Cujo, IT, and 11/22/63.

Mary Wollstonecraft is widely hailed as the mother of modern feminism. The book that made her famous, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, is a work of worldwide renown. Yet the range of her achievements as a thinker and writer reach far beyond this text. She was a multi-faceted author, and although the condition of women was a constant preoccupation throughout her life, she wrote on a wide variety of topics and in a range of literary forms, some of which she created herself.

In 1773, literary giant Samuel Johnson set off with his friend James Boswell on a tour of Scotland’s remote Highlands and Western Isles. What followed was a vivid travelogue capturing the landscapes, people, and customs of a region on the brink of change. With wit, insight, and curiosity, Johnson reflects on everything from ancient clan traditions to the decline of the Gaelic language—offering a rare glimpse into 18th-century Scotland through the eyes of one of England’s greatest minds.

The Durrells are probably the most celebrated literary family of the 20th century. Gerald turned them into celebrities with his tripartite memoir, beginning with My Family and Other Animals (1956) which told of his experiences with his widowed mother Louisa and three siblings during their time in 1930s Corfu. We know of the Durrells from their own writings and from the image of them created by TV, film and biographical accounts of specific figures. What we do not know is the truth.

Volume 1 of this life-time collection has a wide variety of quotations on 52 topics. And it is full of quotes that will be of particular interest to writers, speakers, teachers, and anyone else with an inquisitive mind. I am not apologizing for that emphasis, just explaining it. I am, after all, an Anglo male who is older than grass but younger than dirt. And I am a Christian who is also fairly conservative on social issues and politics. So this collection of quotes, my personal stash, naturally leans in that direction. But there are plenty of remarkable ideas here for everyone. My ...

From the author of the acclaimed novel A Pigeon and a Boy comes a charming tale of family ties, over-the-top housekeeping, and the sport of storytelling in Nahalal, the village of Meir Shalev's birth. Here we meet Shalev's amazing Grandma Tonia, who arrived in Palestine by boat from Russia in 1923 and lived in a constant state of battle with what she viewed as the family's biggest enemy in their new land: dirt.

Borges in His Own Words is a fascinating work that immerses the listener in the linguistic essence of the celebrated Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Through meticulous analysis, this book presents the 100 most used words by Borges, revealing the keys to his unique literary style and his profound worldview. Each word is explored in its context, intertwining the narratives and recurring themes that defined his work.

"Die Charaktere aus der Feder guter Autoren sind wie echte Menschen, nur echter", sagt Donna Leon. Darum wohl ist ihr Leben auch so reich an Figuren, echten und erfundenen. In Backstage tritt eine bunte Truppe auf: das Rock-Genie Frank Zappa, Venedigs bekanntester Diamantenhändler, eine tollkühne Sexworkerin, ein cleverer Komponist, tragische Helden, bewunderte Kollegen und Kolleginnen. Donna Leon gestaltet diese Begegnungen zu funkelnden Geschichten.

This is the story of his deliverance from manic depression (known today as bipolar). The story is set back in the early 1970s and chronicles what the hippie culture was like. David knows that he would not be alive today without an understanding of God's Word, the Bible. He could have easily taken his life without it.

Lise Manin nous présente une biographie de l'écrivain Colette dont l'existence hors-norme se révèle au travers des nombreuses sources mobilisées et de son œuvre qui présente une dimension autobiographique. L'auteure retrace la vie d'une femme dont l'œuvre multiforme a questionné les normes de genre dans la France des XIXe et XXe siècles, suscitant engouements et scandales. Personnalité du milieu littéraire et théâtral parisien, Colette a aimé de façon inconventionnelle, s'est mariée trois fois et a vécu publiquement sa bisexualité.

В 1890 году Антон Павлович Чехов, к тому времени уже прославленный писатель, отправился в тяжелое и рискованное путешествие на самый отдаленный край империи — на каторжный Сахалин. Проделав долгий путь через всю Сибирь, он прибыл на остров не как чиновник или журналист, а движимый желанием увидеть истинное положение дел, как живут ссыльные, каторжане и переселенцы, и донести правду до читателей. Результатом глубокого, подлинно научного и человечного исследования длиною в три месяца стал труд «Остров Сахалин», уникальное произведение, сочетающее в себе научную точность и человеческую чуткость.