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Why Not, Lafayette?
by Jean FritzTraces the life of the French nobleman who fought for democracy in revolutions in both the United States and France.
William Bradford: Plymouth's Faithful Pilgrim
by Gary D. SchmidtBiography of the pilgrim William Bradford, who lived at the New Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
William M. Kunstler: The Most Hated Lawyer in America
by David J LangumThe true story of the defender of the Chicago 7Alternately vilified as a publicity-seeking egoist and lauded as a rambunctious, fearless advocate, William Kunstler consistently embodied both of these qualities. Kunstler's unrelenting, radical critique of American racism and the legal system took shape as a result of his efforts to enlist the federal judicial system to support the civil rights movement. In the late 60s and the 70s, Kunstler, refocusing his attention on the Black Power and anti-war movement, garnered considerable public attention as defender of the Chicago Seven, and went on to represent such controversial figures as Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader charged with killing an FBI agent, and Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. Later, Kunstler briefly represented Colin Ferguson, the Long Island Railroad mass murderer, outraging fans and detractors alike with his invocation of the infamous "black rage" defense. Defending those most loathed by mainstream, conventional America, William Kunstler delighted in taking on fiercely political cases, usually representing society's outcasts and pariahs free of charge and often achieving remarkable courtroom results in seemingly hopeless cases. Though Kunstler never gave up his revolutionary underpinnings, he gradually turned from defending clients whose political beliefs he personally supported to taking on apolitical clients, falling back on the broad rationale that his was a general struggle against an oppressive government. What ideological and tactical motives explain Kunstler's obsessive craving for media attention, his rhetorical flourishes in the courtroom and his instinctive and relentless drive for action? How did Kunstler migrate from a comfortable middle-class background to a life as a staunchly rebellious figure in social and legal history? David Langum's portrait gives depth to the already notorious breadth of William Kunstler's life.
William Shakespeare: His Life and Work
by Anthony HoldenWho was William Shakespeare? How did the 'rude groom' from Stratford grow up to be the greatest poet the world has known? Not for a generation, since the late Anthony Burgess's SHAKESPEARE (1970), has there been anything approaching a popular, mainstream biography of the greatest and most celebrated writer. Yet Shakespeare's life was as colourful, varied and dramatic as his works: the Warwickshire country boy who 'disappeared' for seven years before fetching up in London as an apprentice actor...whose fellow players could scarcely keep up with the plays he turned out for them...who rapidly became a favourite at the court of Elizabeth I...and returned to Stratford a prosperous 'gentleman', proud to realise his father's dream of a family coat of arms, before his death at 52.Anthony Holden brilliantly interleaves the poets own words with the known facts to breathe new life into a story never before told in such absorbing detail. 'The perfect blend of erudition and accessibility' - the Daily Telegraph's verdict on Holden's life of Tchaikovsky - applies equally to his revealing, very human portrait of Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare: His Life and Work
by Anthony HoldenWho was William Shakespeare? How did the 'rude groom' from Stratford grow up to be the greatest poet the world has known? Not for a generation, since the late Anthony Burgess's SHAKESPEARE (1970), has there been anything approaching a popular, mainstream biography of the greatest and most celebrated writer. Yet Shakespeare's life was as colourful, varied and dramatic as his works: the Warwickshire country boy who 'disappeared' for seven years before fetching up in London as an apprentice actor...whose fellow players could scarcely keep up with the plays he turned out for them...who rapidly became a favourite at the court of Elizabeth I...and returned to Stratford a prosperous 'gentleman', proud to realise his father's dream of a family coat of arms, before his death at 52.Anthony Holden brilliantly interleaves the poets own words with the known facts to breathe new life into a story never before told in such absorbing detail. 'The perfect blend of erudition and accessibility' - the Daily Telegraph's verdict on Holden's life of Tchaikovsky - applies equally to his revealing, very human portrait of Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare and the Globe
by AlikiFrom "Hamlet", to "Romeo and Juliet", to "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Shakespeare's celebrated works have touched people around the world. Aliki combines literature, history, biography, archaeology, and architecture in this richly detailed and meticulously researched introduction to Shakespeare's world-his life in Elizabethan times, the theater world, and the Globe, for which he wrote his plays. Then she brings history full circle to the present-day reconstruction of the Globe theater.
Wit: A Play
by Margaret EdsonWinner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Oppenheimer Award Margaret Edson's powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prizewinning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence's unifying experiencesmortalitywhile she also probes the vital importance of human relationships. What we as her audience take away from this remarkable drama is a keener sense that, while death is real and unavoidable, our lives are ours to cherish or throw awaya lesson that can be both uplifting and redemptive. As the playwright herself puts it, "The play is not about doctors or even about cancer. It's about kindness, but it shows arrogance. It's about compassion, but it shows insensitivity." In Wit,Edson delves into timeless questions with no final answers: How should we live our lives knowing that we will die? Is the way we live our lives and interact with others more important than what we achieve materially, professionally, or intellectually? How does language figure into our lives? Can science and art help us conquer death, or our fear of it? What will seem most important to each of us about life as that life comes to an end? The immediacy of the presentation, and the clarity and elegance of Edson's writing, make this sophisticated, multilayered play accessible to almost any interested reader. As the play begins, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the intricate, difficult Holy Sonnets of the seventeenth-century poet John Donne, is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Confident of her ability to stay in control of events, she brings to her illness the same intensely rational and painstakingly methodical approach that has guided her stellar academic career. But as her disease and its excruciatingly painful treatment inexorably progress, she begins to question the single-minded values and standards that have always directed her, finally coming to understand the aspects of life that make it truly worth living.
With Open Hands: A Story about Biddy Mason
by Jeri Chase FerrisRecounts the life of Biddy Mason, a slave who found freedom in California in 1856, who practiced the philosophy of sharing as she nursed the sick, delivered babies, and started many philanthropic projects after becoming a wealthy landowner in Los Angeles.
A Woman Unknown: Voices from a Spanish Life
by Lucia GravesLucia Graves, daughter of the poet Robert Graves and his wife Beryl, grew up in the beautiful village of Deia on the island of Majorca. Neither Spanish nor Catholic by birth, she nevertheless absorbed the different traditions of Spain and felt the full impact of Franco's dictatorship through the experience of her education. Lucia found herself continually bridging the gaps between Catalan, Spanish and English, as she picked up the patterns and nuances that contain the essence of each culture.Portraying her life as a child watching the hills lit up by bonfires on Good Friday, or, years later, walking through the haunting backstreets of the Jewish quarter of Girona, this is a captivating personal memoir which provides a first-hand account of Catalonia, where Lucia lived and raised a family. It is also a unique and perceptive appraisal of a country burdened by tradition yet coming to terms with political change as the decades moved on.
A Woman Unknown: Voices from a Spanish Life
by Lucia GravesLucia Graves, daughter of the poet Robert Graves and his wife Beryl, grew up in the beautiful village of Deia on the island of Majorca. Neither Spanish nor Catholic by birth, she nevertheless absorbed the different traditions of Spain and felt the full impact of Franco's dictatorship through the experience of her education. Lucia found herself continually bridging the gaps between Catalan, Spanish and English, as she picked up the patterns and nuances that contain the essence of each culture.Portraying her life as a child watching the hills lit up by bonfires on Good Friday, or, years later, walking through the haunting backstreets of the Jewish quarter of Girona, this is a captivating personal memoir which provides a first-hand account of Catalonia, where Lucia lived and raised a family. It is also a unique and perceptive appraisal of a country burdened by tradition yet coming to terms with political change as the decades moved on.
Women of Courage: Inspiring Stories from the Women Who Lived Them
by Katherine MartinThese are the stories of more than 40 women who have had life-altering experiences, conquered challenges, and grew stronger.
Women of Courage
by Katherine MartinThe 41 ordinary and well-known women honored in this first book in New World Library's "People Who Dare" series have shown forms of bravery that, according to editor Martin, go largely unrecognized -- such as persevering in adverse circumstances, challenging tradition, showing vulnerability, fostering healing, and listening to one's heart. Concern about her children's education impelled Patty Murray (currently U.S. Senator from Washington) to run against an incumbent and win a seat in her state senate. Acting out of a deeply felt commitment to the poor, Dr. Janelle Goetcheus, along with other physicians she recruited, founded Christ House, a renovated apartment building where seriously ill homeless patients stay and receive care. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Laura Evans celebrated her survival by founding Expedition Inspiration, an organization that takes breast cancer survivors on mountain climbs. Cora Lee Johnson's longtime dream of starting a community sewing center became a reality when she was 62 because, although poor and uneducated, she persevered by talking about the center to anyone who would listen. Men and women both will find inspiration for their own lives in these captivating stories.
Women Rulers Throughout the Ages: An Illustrated Guide
by Guida M. Jackson-LauferAlphabetically from Absh Khatun, 13th century Queen of Persia, to Dr. Sibongile Zungu, chief in 1993 of the South African Madlebe Tribe, independent scholar Jackson updates her book Women Who Ruled by adding those who have served in the last decade. The volume includes entries running from a paragraph to three pages a useful geographical chronology by century and b&w representations of rulers from Carthage's legendary founder Dido to Jenny Shipley, New Zealand's Prime Minister since 1997. Includes some powers behind the throne like Diane de Poitiers but not Marie Antoinette or Eva Peron.
The Women Who Broke All the Rules: How the Choices of a Generation Changed Our Lives
by Susan B. Evans Joan P. AvisFeaturing in-depth interviews with over 100 women, this important book uncovers the untold stories of lives in progress, doing one's best and rewriting old rules. The stories tell of the creativity, courage, and determination used by women to forever redefine womanhood.
Women's Moods: What Every Woman Must Know About Hormones, the Brain, and Emotional Health
by Deborah Sichel Jeanne Watson DriscollDiscusses the ways menstruation and pregnancy affect mood disorders in women.
Work in Progress: Risking Failure, Surviving Success
by Michael D. Eisner Tony SchwartzWith candor and insight, the chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company describes his successes, his well-known failures, and the principles that have guided his career.
Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs
by Peter GolenbockFor celebrated sportswriter Peter Golenbock,Wrigleyville is a symbol of America's fidelity to its greatest sport. As he did with classics of sports literature, Bums (a history of the Brooklyn Dodgers) and Dynasty (a history of the New York Yankees), Golenbock turns to a team that has won and broken the hearts of generations of fans; the Chicago Cubs. Utilizing dozens of personal interviews with players, coaches, fans, sportswriters, and clubhouse personnel, as well as out-of-print memoirs by nineteenth-century players, Peter Golenbock has created a perfect gift for every baseball fan: a book that entertains, warms the heart, and touches the soul. This updated edition includes material on Harry Caray's death, the magical seasons of Sammy Sosa and Kerry Wood, and the Cubs' 1998 playoff dive.
Write a Book for Me: Story of Marguerite Henry (World Writers)
by David R. CollinsFor over half a century the stories of Marguerite Henry have taken readers on journeys through space and time, from the barrier islands off the Atlantic coast, to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, and from eighteenth century to nineteenth century America. Every trip through the books Marguerite Henry book is an adventure that lives on in the reader's memory long after the final page is read. This warm-hearted biography is a welcome introduction to Marguerite Henry. It is also a great place to learn how this little sister in hand-me-down clothes grew into one of the world's most beloved writers.
Written Lives
by Margaret Jull Costa Javier MaríasAn affectionate and very funny gallery of twenty great world authors from the pen of "the most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature" (The Boston Globe). In addition to his own busy career as "one of Europe's most intriguing contemporary writers" (TLS), Javier Marías is also the translator into Spanish of works by Hardy, Stevenson, Conrad, Faulkner, Nabokov, and Laurence Sterne. His love for these authors is the touchstone of Written Lives. Collected here are twenty pieces recounting great writers' lives, "or, more precisely, snippets of writers' lives." Thomas Mann, Rilke, Arthur Conan Doyle, Turgenev, Djuna Barnes, Emily Brontë, Malcolm Lowry, and Kipling appear ("all fairly disastrous individuals"), and "almost nothing" in his stories is invented. Like Isak Dinesen (who "claimed to have poor sight, yet could spot a four-leaf clover in a field from a remarkable distance away"), Marías has a sharp eye. Nabokov is here, making "the highly improbable assertion that he is 'as American as April in Arizona,'" as is Oscar Wilde, who, in debt on his deathbed, ordered up champagne, "remarking cheerfully, 'I am dying beyond my means.'" Faulkner, we find, when fired from his post office job, explained that he was not prepared "to be beholden to any son-of-a-bitch who had two cents to buy a stamp." Affection glows in the pages of Written Lives, evidence, as Marías remarks, that "although I have enjoyed writing all my books, this was the one with which I had the most fun."
Year in Nam: A Native American Soldier's Story
by Leroy TecubeRecollections from a Native American about the year that he spent in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and how it influenced him throughout his life
Years of Renewal
by Henry KissingerPerhaps the best-known American diplomatist of the twentieth century, Henry Kissinger is a major figure in world history, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and arguably one of the most brilliant minds ever placed at the service of American foreign policy, as well as one of the shrewdest, best-informed, and most articulate men ever to occupy a position of power in Washington. The eagerly awaited third and final volume of his memoirs completes a major work of contemporary history. It is at once an important historical document and a brilliantly told narrative of almost Shakespearean intensity, full of startling insights, unusual (and often unsparing) candor, and a sweeping sense of history. Years of Renewal is the triumphant conclusion of a major achievement and a book that will stand the test of time as a historical document of the first rank.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir
by Maggie SmithINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NPR Best Book of the Year • Time Best Book of the Year • Oprah Daily Best Memoir of the Year &“A bittersweet study in both grief and joy.&” —Time &“A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes&” (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age—from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving.&“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.&” In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman&’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she&’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy. You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother&’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman&’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is &“extraordinary&” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.
The Young Life of Sister Faustina
by Claire Jordan MohanThe book explores the early life of Sister Faustina, a worldwide known apostle of Divine Mercy and one of the greatest mystics of the Church, who had her first calling to religious life at the age of 7.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Perennial Classics Ser.)
by Robert M PirsigTHE CLASSIC BOOK THAT HAS INSPIRED MILLIONSA penetrating examination of how we live and how to live betterFew books transform a generation and then establish themselves as touchstones for the generations that follow. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one such book. This modern epic of a man’s search for meaning became an instant bestseller on publication in 1974, acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters. It continues to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions on how to live. The narrator's relationship with his son leads to a powerful self-reckoning; the craft of motorcycle maintenance leads to an austerely beautiful process for reconciling science, religion, and humanism. Resonant with the confusions of existence, this classic is a touching and transcendent book of life.This new edition contains an interview with Pirsig and letters and documents detailing how this extraordinary book came to be.
نَظّاراتُ الحَظِّ السَّعيدِ
by سارا لندنقصة فتاة صغيرة كانت تعاني من ضعف في البصر عرضها لسخرية أخيها وزملائها في المدرسة. تدوس بالخطأ ذيل القطة, وترى الكتابة على السبورة وكأنها ترقص على الجليد, أما في عيد ميلادها فهي ترى شمعة إضافية. وفي يوم من الأيام يبشرها والدها بأنها ستنال حظاً سعيداً, فتأخذ بالتساؤل حول مصدر ذلك الحظ السعيد إلى أن يأتي اليوم الذي يزورون به طبيب العيون والذي يخبرهم بأنها تحتاج إلى نظارات. وبمجرد أن ترتدي النظارات تتمكن من الرؤية بوضوح وتشعر بأنها بالفعل محظوظة لأنها أصبحت ترى الأشياء بشكل أوضح بكثير مما كانت تبدو عليه. وبالرغم من أنها تعلم بأنها مختلفة عن الآخرين, إلا أنها تشعر بالسعادة. إذ أنها بدلاً من مقارنة نفسها بالآخرين, تقارن نفسها بوضعها السابق حين كانت لا ترى بوضوح.