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Kafka: The Torment of Man
by René Marill-Albérès Pierre de BoisdeffreThis is a study of Kafka&’s tragic vision of life, his profoundly disturbing awareness of man&’s utter loneliness in a pitiless universe, and his artistry in effecting a strange intimate fusion between symbolism and realism—between anguished poetic narration and the terrifying reality of an absurd and ambiguous environment. The book discusses the historical setting, the literary currents, and the personal details affecting the development of Kafka&’s genius: his isolation in a labyrinthine universe; his sufferings, sickness and death; his influence and survival through his art. The central idea of the book is summed up in a quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre: &“I have nothing to say about Kafka except that he is one of the rarest and greatest writers of our time.&” The authors are specialists in contemporary literature. Translated from the French by Wade Baskin.
Art and Faith: Letters between Jacques Maritain and Jean Cocteau
by Jacques Maritain Jean CocteauThe meaning of poetry and the sociological and political significance of art are dealt with in these letters.
Scientific Autobiography: And Other Papers
by Max PlanckIn this fascinating autobiography from one of the foremost geniuses of twentieth-century physics, Max Planck tells the story of his life, his aims, and his thinking. Published posthumously, the papers in this volume were written for the general reader and make accessible Planck&’s scientific theories as well as his philosophical ideals, including his thoughts on ethics and morals.
Extra Innings: A Memoir
by Doris GrumbachA New York Times Notable Book: A moving glimpse of a life shrewdly examinedExtra Innings follows a year in the life of Doris Grumbach, beginning with the release of her previous memoir and journal, Coming into the End Zone, and revealing that the devoted essayist, novelist, and critic possesses as keen an eye in her seventies as she did when she wrote The Spoil of Flowers thirty years earlier. Grumbach details each passing month and the trials and tribulations therein. Age and experience have tempered her anger, allowing her to view the world in a rosier light than she has before. In this eventful period that concludes with her move from Washington, DC, to Maine, Grumbach travels between signings and speeches, describes her home life in a new state, and deals not only with her own mortality, but with that of her daughter. Grumbach&’s wisdom and wit endure as she looks back on her own memories, seeing the world as only Doris Grumbach can.
Coming into the End Zone: A Memoir
by Doris GrumbachA New York Times Notable Book: One woman&’s search for the value of a long life With the advent of her seventieth birthday, many changes have beset Doris Grumbach: the rapidly accelerating speed of the world around her, the premature deaths of her younger friends, her own increasing infirmities, and her move from cosmopolitan Washington, DC, to the calm of the Maine coast. Coming into the End Zone is an account of everything Grumbach observes over the course of a year. Astute observations and vivid memories of quotidian events pepper her story, which surprises even her with its fullness and vigor. Coming into the End Zone captures the days of a woman entering a new stage of life with humanity and abiding hope.
Fifty Days of Solitude: A Memoir
by Doris GrumbachA New York Times Notable Book: To truly understand herself, Doris Grumbach embraces solitude With a busy career as a novelist, essayist, reviewer, and bookstore owner, Doris Grumbach has little opportunity to be alone. However, after seventy-five years on the planet, she finally has her chance: Her partner has departed for an extended book-buying trip, and Grumbach has been given fifty days to relax, think, and write about her experience. In this graceful memoir, Grumbach delicately balances the beauty of turning one&’s back on everything with the hardship of complete aloneness. Even as she attends church and collects her mail, she moves like a shadow, speaking to no one. Left only to her books and music in the midst of a Maine winter, she must look within herself for solace. The result of this reflection is a powerful meditation on the meaning of aging, writing, and one&’s own company—and reaffirmation of the power of friends and companionship.
Life in a Day: A Memoir
by Doris GrumbachA look into the daily life of one of America&’s great memoirists At seventy-seven Doris Grumbach is as sharp as ever, and in Life in a Day she examines the experiences of her later years, from the dreaded writer&’s block to the many hours she has spent reading to the effects of an increasingly modern and interconnected world. Imbued with Grumbach&’s characteristic candor and verve, Life in a Day is a celebration of the meaning to be found in the quotidian.
The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany (Inspirational Ser.)
by Doris GrumbachThe story of an ecstatic spiritual moment—and the search to experience it again When she was twenty-seven years old, writer Doris Grumbach had an epiphany. It was as if God were right there beside her, and she had a &“feeling of peace so intense that it seemed to expand into ineffable joy.&” After this fleeting moment, Grumbach became determined to recapture what she had felt. The Presence of Absence is the story of her fifty-year search. Grumbach is an open-minded and skilled seeker, and she writes candidly of the people she has met along the way. She details how she lost her path after decades of going to her Protestant church and writes of her turn to personal spirituality. In her quest to find God, she encounters a multitude of philosophies and gives all of them their due. She reads the works of Thomas Merton and Simone Weil, seeks the advice of her seminary-attending daughter, and studies the Psalms. Despite the setbacks of disease, injury, and ego, Grumbach perseveres in her pursuit of beauty and proof in the absence.
The Ladies: A Novel
by Doris GrumbachA tender and imaginative retelling of the adventures of two of history&’s most compelling women In 1778 Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby left County Kilkenny for Wales to live together as a married couple. Both well born, highly educated Irish women, the Ladies of Llangollen, as they came to be known, defied all eighteenth-century social convention and spent half a century together in a loving relationship. Removed from the intrusive gaze of the world, the fictional Eleanor and Sarah retreat to their shared home to study literature and language and enjoy their solitude. In an imagined account, Doris Grumbach brings this gripping chronicle to new audiences. With a keen sense of the rhythms and routines of longtime partnership, Grumbach breathes vivid life into this fascinating story of a passion both shocking and steadfast.
Chamber Music: A Novel
by Doris GrumbachIn her later years, a woman reflects on her marriage, her stifled passions, and her life At age ninety, Caroline Maclaren, widow of the prominent composer Robert Maclaren, finally decides to tell her own story. &“Perhaps the time was not right to do it before,&” she remarks. But now she takes pen to paper, reliving her sheltered girlhood, her chilly marriage to a brilliant man, and—perhaps above all—the melancholy solitude in which she has lived nearly all her life. It was only when her husband fell ill that Caroline found fulfilling companionship with Anna, Robert&’s caretaker. This masterful tale of loneliness and of passion late in life is widely considered to be Grumbach&’s finest work. Bittersweet, touching, and profoundly resonant, Chamber Music is captivating.
The Missing Person: A Novel
by Doris GrumbachThe moving portrait of a woman stranded in her lonely fame Franny Fuller, blond, buxom, and beguiling, is the sort of woman who harnesses a power that can enthrall a nation. The legendary movie star has captured the imaginations of audiences, men, and columnist Mary Maguire, who is writing her biography. But just who is the human within the celebrity? This is the story of how Fanny Marker from Utica, New York, was transformed into Franny Fuller—a famous actress with a life of private misery. Doris Grumbach takes readers beyond the glamour of the silver screen with this poignant novel of one woman&’s sad reality.
Saturday's Child: A Memoir
by Robin MorganAn amazing trajectory: From child star to prize-winning writer to feminist icon Robin Morgan is famous as a bestselling author of nonfiction, a prize-winning poet, and a founder and leader of contemporary feminism. Before all of that, though, she was a working child actor. From the age of two, "Saturday's child had to work for a living." She had her own radio show on New York's WOR, Little Robin Morgan, by the time she was four; starred during the Golden Age of television in TV's Mama from ages seven to fourteen; and was named the Ideal American Girl when she was twelve. In Saturday's Child, she writes for the first time about her working youth, her battles to break away from show business and from her mother, her search for her absent, abandoning father, her entrance into the literary world, and the development of her politics, relationships, and writing. Morgan describes her tumultuous but successful life with startling honesty: her flight from child stardom into literature, her twenty-year marriage to a bisexual man, her joyful motherhood, her lovers, both male and female, her actions as a "temporary terrorist" on the left during the 1970s, and her travels and experiences in the global women's movement. She writes about compiling and editing the famous anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful and Sisterhood Is Global and later cofounding with Simone de Beauvoir the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. Saturday's Child follows this "Ideal American Girl" on her path to becoming the feminist icon she is today. Epic in scope, witty, and bravely insightful, this is the tale of half of humanity rising up and demanding its rights, told through the intensely personal story of one remarkable woman.
Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist
by Robin MorganThe personal papers of one of feminism&’s most passionate leaders, with a new preface by the author As an activist for social justice, Robin Morgan has acquired a reputation for strong convictions and a life-affirming way of expressing them through writing. Nowhere is this more evident than in Going Too Far, which takes us behind the scenes in Morgan&’s life and in the women&’s movement until 1977. We watch the development of an organizer who is a complex thinker while Morgan evolves as a mother, leader, writer, and activist. Morgan&’s keen eye is trained on all aspects of modern feminism, and this is reflected in the juxtaposition of the journal entries and letters of her personal life with the essays and polemics that shape her public persona. Her opinions on marriage, love, religion, pornography, and art are as utterly fresh and timely today as they were decades ago. Her growing wisdom and depth of perception are apparent in the book&’s progression, and her last chapters, focused on what she terms the &“metaphysics of feminism,&” will change a reader&’s world view for the better—and forever.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by Saint AugustineThe world’s most famous spiritual autobiography Written between 397 and 398 CE, The Confessions of Saint Augustine is the story of Augustine of Hippo’s childhood in Numidia, his youth and early adulthood in Carthage, Rome, and Milan, and his conversion to Christianity. As he struggled to liberate himself from his sinful past, Augustine embarked on a quest that would transform him into one of the most influential religious thinkers of all time. A moving testament to the power of faith and an inspirational guide to a fulfilled life, The Confessions of Saint Augustine is a masterwork of Western literature. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol
by Ultra VioletOne of Andy Warhol's superstars recalls the birth of an art movement--and the death of an icon In this audacious tell-all memoir, Ultra Violet, born Isabelle Collin Dufresne, relives her years with Andy Warhol at the Factory and all of the madness that accompanied the sometimes-violent delivery of pop art. Starting with her botched seduction of the "shy, near-blind, bald, gay albino" from Pittsburgh, Ultra Violet installs herself in Warhol's world, becoming his muse for years to come. But she does more than just inspire; she also watches, listens, and remembers, revealing herself to be an ideal tour guide to the "assembly line for art, sex, drugs, and film" that is the Factory. Famous for 15 Minutes drips with juicy details about celebrities and cultural figures in vignettes filled with surreptitious cocaine spoons, shameless sex, and insights into perhaps the most recognizable but least intimately known artist in the world. Beyond the legendary artist himself are the throngs of Factory "regulars"--Billy Name, Baby Jane Holzer, Brigid Polk--and the more transient celebrities who make appearances--Bob Dylan, Jane Fonda, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon. Delightfully bizarre and always entertaining, filled with colorful scenes and larger-than-life personalities, this dishy page-turner is shot through with the author's vivid imagery and piercing observations of a cultural idol and his eclectic, voyeuristic, altogether riveting world.
Jenny and Barnum: A Novel of Love
by Roderick ThorpA diva and a showman work together to make history, finding romance along the way After Queen Victoria, Jenny Lind is the most famous woman in Europe. A Swedish soprano with a voice like an angel&’s and a temperament to match, she is in Vienna when she meets the shortest man she has ever seen. General Tom Thumb is a three-foot-tall sensation whom P. T. Barnum has made one of the wealthiest men in the world. Thumb arrives with a message from Barnum offering Lind more money than she has ever dreamed of, to do something she has never done before: perform in America. While Lind makes her way across the Atlantic, Barnum, the Great American Showman, whips US audiences into a frenzy. By the time the singer lands in New York, &“Lindomania&” is in full effect. As Lind and Barnum travel the country, they play for packed houses every night. The public loves Lind, but as the tour wears on, P. T. Barnum will come to love her more.
Nothing to Fall Back On
by Betsy CarterBetsy Carter seemed to have it all: a gorgeous husband with Paul Newman eyes, a thriving career as a journalist at Newsweek and Esquire, and invites to the hottest parties in the best city in the world. Carter was the ultimate "New York woman," and so it was no wonder that she founded a magazine by that name. But in her early thirties, her luck turned toxic: a fire, illness, divorce, a devastating cab accident, unspeakably bad boyfriends. Carter's life became so grim that her therapist suggested she have an exorcism; a tarot card reader burst into tears as she laid Carter's life out on the table. This moving story, set against the gossipy and often hilarious world of magazine publishing in the go-go eighties, reveals what it was like for one woman to be stripped bare, wander the wreckage, and come back with her head and renovations intact.
The Rose Café
by John Hanson MitchellThis memoir of the author's brief sojourn working at a café and auberge in Corsica is populated with a questionable group of locals, fugitives, and escapists during the Algerian and Vietnam Wars.
The Trials of Radclyffe Hall
by Diana SouhamiDiana Souhami&’s Lambda Award–winning biography is a fascinating look at one of the twentieth century&’s most intriguing lesbian literary figures. Born in 1880, Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall was a young unwanted child when her parents put an end to their tempestuous marriage by filing for divorce. She had already made tentative forays into lesbian love when her father died, leaving her an heiress at eighteen. Her income assured, Hall moved out of her mother&’s house, renamed herself John in honor of her great-great-grandfather, and divided her time among hunting, traveling, and pursuing women. She began to write—songs, poetry, prose, and short stories—and achieved success as a novelist, but it was with the publication of The Well of Loneliness in 1928 that Radclyffe Hall became an internationally known figure. Dubbed the &“bible of lesbianism,&” the book caused a scandal on both sides of the Atlantic. Though moralistic in tone, because of its subject matter it was tried as obscene in America and in the United Kingdom, where it was censored under the Obscene Publications Act. The Trials of Radclyffe Hall is a fascinating, no-holds-barred account of the life of this controversial woman, including her torrid relationship with the married artist Una Troubridge, who was Hall&’s devoted partner for twenty-eight years.
Gluck: Her Biography
by Diana SouhamiDiana Souhami&’s critically acclaimed biography of lesbian painter Hannah Gluckstein—the woman, the artist, the legend To her family, Hannah Gluckstein was known as Hig. To Edith Shackleton Heald, the journalist with whom she lived for almost forty years, she was Dearest Grub. And to the art world, she was simply Gluck. She was born in 1895 into a life of privilege. Her family had founded J. Lyons & Co., a vast catering empire. From the beginning Gluck was a rebel. At a time when only men wore trousers, she scandalized society with her masculine clothing—though she always dressed with style and turned androgyny into high fashion. Her affairs with high-profile women shocked her conservative family, even while she achieved fame as an artist. During the 1920s and thirties, Gluck&’s paintings—portraits, flowers, and landscapes, presented in frames designed and patented by her—were the toast of the town. At the height of her success, when wounded in love, her own obsessions caused her to fade for decades from the public eye, but then, at nearly eighty, her return to the spotlight ensured her immortality.
Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe (Voyages Ser.)
by Diana SouhamiWinner of the Whitbread Biography Award: The true story of the shipwrecked Scottish buccaneer who inspired Daniel Defoe&’s novel. This action-filled biography follows Alexander Selkirk, an eighteenth-century Scottish buccaneer who sailed the South Seas plundering for gold. But an ill-fated expedition in 1703 led to shipwreck on remote Juan Fernández Island off the coast of Chile. Selkirk, the ship&’s master, was accused of inciting mutiny and abandoned on the uninhabited island with nothing but his clothing, his pistol, a knife, and a Bible. Each day he searched the sea for a ship that would rescue him and prayed for help that seemed never to come. In solitude and silence Selkirk gradually learned to adapt. He killed seals and goats for food and used their skin for clothing. He learned how to build a house, forage for food, create stores, plant seeds, light a fire, and tame cats. Then one day, a ship with wooden sails appeared on the horizon. The crew was greeted by a bearded savage, incoherent and fierce. Selkirk had been marooned for four years and four months. Now he was about to return to the world of men. The story of a verdant, mysterious archipelago and its famous castaway is both a parable about nature and a remarkable account of the survival of a man cut off from civilization.
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream: The Most Revealing Portrait Of A President And Presidential Power Ever Written
by Doris Kearns GoodwinAn engrossing biography of President Lyndon Johnson from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Team of Rivals Hailed by the New York Times as "the most penetrating, fascinating political biography I have ever read," Doris Kearns Goodwin's extraordinary and insightful book draws from meticulous research in addition to the author's time spent working at the White House from 1967 to 1969. After Lyndon Johnson's term ended, Goodwin remained his confidante and assisted in the preparation of his memoir. In Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream she traces the 36th president's life from childhood to his early days in politics, and from his leadership of the Senate to his presidency, analyzing his dramatic years in the White House, including both his historic domestic triumphs and his failures in Vietnam. Drawn from personal anecdotes and candid conversation with Johnson, Goodwin paints a rich and complicated portrait of one of our nation's most compelling politicians.
De Profundis: Large Print
by Oscar WildeOscar Wilde’s autobiographical work on suffering, self-realization, and the artistic processDe Profundis (Latin for “from the depths”) is Oscar Wilde’s reconciliation from a life full of pleasure. In 1891 the author began an intimate relationship with the young aristocrat Lord Alfred Douglas, known to his friends as Bosie. This affair led to speculations about Wilde’s sexuality just as his career was reaching its apex. Ultimately, Bosie’s father, the powerful Marquess of Queensberry, accused Wilde of homosexuality. As this conduct was considered a “gross indecency” punishable by hard labor, this was a serious charge, and one that ultimately landed Wilde in prison. It wasn’t until January of 1897 that Wilde began to write from his cell. De Profundis, a scathing indictment of his former lover, is the letter that Wilde wrote to Bosie from prison. In addition to detailing the wrongs visited on Wilde by Bosie and his family, De Profundis traces the spiritual growth that Wilde experiences in prison. Having lost everything he holds dear, Wilde transforms his hardship into art. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Meditations
by Marcus AureliusWisdom from one of the greatest philosophical minds in all of Roman history Divided into twelve books, these meditations chronicle Aurelius&’s personal quest for self-improvement. This enduring text from one of history&’s greatest warriors and leaders has been compared to St. Augustine&’s Confessions for its timelessness, clarity, and candor. These writings, composed between 161 and 180 CE, set forth Aurelius&’s Stoic philosophy and stress the importance of acting in a way that is moral and just rather than self-indulgent. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Letters to Friend and Foe
by Baruch SpinozaLetters that appear in this volume cover only the last two decades of Spinoza&’s life and represent a mere fraction of the immense correspondence he carried on during his lifetime.