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Pierre Berton: A Biography
by Brian MckillopThe first ever biography of one of Canada's best-known and most colourful personalities by an award-winning author.From his northern childhood on, it was clear that Pierre Berton (1920--2004) was different from his peers. Over the course of his eighty-four years, he would become the most famous Canadian media figure of his time, in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and books -- sometimes all at once. Berton dominated bookstore shelves for almost half a century, winning Governor General's Awards for Klondike and The Last Spike, among many others, along with a dozen honorary degrees.Throughout it all, Berton was larger than life: full of verve and ideas, he approached everything he did with passion, humour, and an insatiable curiosity. He loved controversy and being the centre of attention, and provoked national debate on subjects as wide-ranging as religion and marijuana use. A major voice of Canadian nationalism at the dawn of globalization, he made Canadians take interest in their own history and become proud of it. But he had his critics too, and some considered him egocentric and mean-spirited.Now, with the same meticulous research and storytelling skill that earned him wide critical acclaim for The Spinster and the Prophet, Brian McKillop traces Pierre Berton's remarkable life, with special emphasis on his early days and his rise to prominence. The result is a comprehensive, vivid portrait of the life and work of one of our most celebrated national figures.From the Hardcover edition.
Pierre Boulez Studies
by Edward Campbell Peter O’haganPierre Boulez is acknowledged as one of the most important composers in contemporary musical life. This collection explores his works, influence, reception and legacy, shedding new light on Boulez's music and its historical and cultural contexts. In two sections that focus firstly on the context of the 1940s and 1950s and secondly on the development of the composer's style, the contributors address recurring themes such as Boulez's approach to the serial principle and the related issues of form and large-scale structure. Featuring excerpts from Boulez's correspondence with a range of his contemporaries here published for the first time, the book illuminates both Boulez's relationship with them and his thinking concerning the challenges which confronted both him and other leading figures of the European avant-garde. In the final section, three chapters examine Boulez's relationship with audiences in the United Kingdom, and the development of the appreciation of his music.
Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott
by Dee RomitoThis stunning picture book looks into the life of Georgia Gilmore, a hidden figure of history who played a critical role in the civil rights movement and used her passion for baking to help the Montgomery Bus Boycott achieve its goal.Georgia decided to help the best way she knew how. She worked together with a group of women and together they purchased the supplies they needed-bread, lettuce, and chickens. And off they went to cook.The women brought food to the mass meetings that followed at the church. They sold sandwiches. They sold dinners in their neighborhoods.As the boycotters walked and walked, Georgia cooked and cooked. Georgia Gilmore was a cook at the National Lunch Company in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus boycotts broke out in Montgomery after Rosa Parks was arrested, Georgia knew just what to do. She organized a group of women who cooked and baked to fund-raise for gas and cars to help sustain the boycott. Called the Club from Nowhere, Georgia was the only person who knew who baked and bought the food, and she said the money came from "nowhere" to anyone who asked. When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for his role in the boycott, Georgia testified on his behalf, and her home became a meeting place for civil rights leaders. This picture book highlights a hidden figure of the civil rights movement who fueled the bus boycotts and demonstrated that one person can make a real change in her community and beyond. It also includes one of her delicious recipes for kids to try with the help of their parents!
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (History Heroes #7)
by Damian HarveyPieter Bruegel, the greatest Flemmish painter of the 16th Century, developed a unique style of painting and created many masterpieces, often painting scenes of daily life.Discover the stories of people who have helped to shape history, ranging from early explorers such as Christopher Columbus to more modern figures like Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.These chapter books combine historical fact with engaging narrative and humourous illustration, perfect for the newly independent reader.
Pietro's Book: The Story of a Tuscan Peasant
by Pietro PintiPietro Pinti, born as he says 'in the Middle Ages,' worked the land with hoe and plow from his earliest youth. Growing up under Mussolini's Fascist regime on a farm near Florence, he and his family lived under conditions of extreme poverty, as sharecroppers to generally unscrupulous landowners. But during World War II, when millions in towns and cities suffered untold hardships, the hardy Tuscan peasants were well equipped to face the rigors of the era: war or no war, work on the land went on, and Pietro describes month by month a typical year in their lives: how they made wine and olive oil, planted and harvested the wheat by hand, made baskets and ladders from chestnut wood-skills now lost. With sly wit and salty wisdom, Pietro, a natural storyteller who played the trumpet, wrote poetry, and grew famous for his tales of peasants, knights, and brigands, recreates in colorful detail a world and peasant culture that is fast disappearing. Jenny Bawtree, an Englishwoman long settled in Tuscany, was so fascinated by Pietro's stories that she helped shape them into this autobiography, full of color and humor, hardship and nostalgia.
Piety & Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House
by Tom LoBiancoMIKE PENCE: THE ULTIMATE POLITICAL SHAPE-SHIFTER“I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican . . . in that order.” —Mike PenceAs the impeachment of President Donald Trump remains a constant topic of discussion in political circles, the questions around our current vice president also continue to swirl, and in some ways, the puzzlement over his true nature has never truly been clear. Tom LoBianco, a longtime Pence reporter, cuts to the core of the nation’s most enigmatic politician in this intimate yet expansive account of the vice president’s journey to the White House. In Piety & Power, LoBianco follows Pence from his evangelical conversion in college to his failed career as a young lawyer, to his thwarted attempts at politics until he hitched his wagon to far-right extremism, becoming the Congressional poster boy for faith-based policy and Tea Party rhetoric. Giving readers a minute-by-minute account of the selection process that made him Donald Trump’s unlikely running mate in 2016, Piety & Power traces Pence’s personal and political life, painting a picture of a man driven by faith and conviction, yes, but also a hunger for power. LoBianco crafts a revealing portrait of the real Mike Pence—a politician whose understated style masks a drive for power, but also a surprising political acumen—by drawing on years of research, over one hundred exclusive interviews with those closest to the vice president, and deep ties both within the Beltway and Indiana state politics. Highlighting Pence’s strained, at times obsequious, relationship with Trump; his marriage to Karen; his deeply repressed personality; his presidential aspirations and plans for America’s future; and his deep-rooted faith in his country, in God, and ultimately himself; Piety & Power provides insights and answers as it sheds light on this ambitious Midwestern politician, his past, and his possible future.
Pieza a pieza: La historia del chico que se construyó a sí mismo
by David AguilarNo te pierdas la increíble historia de superación de David Aguilar, Hand Solo en redes. «Muchas veces me preguntan qué se siente cuando te falta medio brazo. Y, la verdad... no lo sé. ¿Qué sentís cuando os falta un dedo? Contadlos por mí, ¿vale? Dejad de leer y contad los dedos que tenéis. «Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, ¡diez! ¿Qué sentís cuando os falta el onceavo dedo? No lo sabéis; yo tampoco. Lo que sé es que no os falta nada; os sobra. Os sobran posibilidades.» En este libro, David Aguilar narra, con una voz fresca y cercana, cómo construyó su primer brazo de Lego y otras muchas historias con las que enseñarnos la lección más importante que ha aprendido: no hay mejor prótesis que el amor. Sobre los autores...DAVID Y FERRAN AGUILAR David nació con el síndrome de Poland. Sus padres, Ferran y Nathalie, así como su hermana Naia, lo han acompañado en todos sus proyectos. Con tan solo nueve años construyó su primera prótesis y desde entonces no ha parado de crear y evolucionar.Ferran, por su parte, no ha escatimado esfuerzo en dar a conocer la historia de su hijo, con la seguridad de que, algún día, inspiraría al mundo entero. Esta familia andorrana se ha convertido recientemente también en protagonista de un documental, Mr. Hand Solo, en el que comparten su historia de superación. Pieza a pieza supone la última muestra de su empeño en participar en un sinfín de proyectos solidarios con los que luchar contra el estigma de la discapacidad y el bullying.
Pig Boy's Wicked Bird: A Memoir
by Doug CrandellThis gritty tragicomic memoir is set in one memorable year--1976, the Bicentennial, when Jimmy Carter ran for president and seven-year-old Doug Crandell lost two fingers in a farming accident. More than anything, Doug wants to shed his nickname, Pig Boy, and grow up to be a hog man like his father. His older brother Derrick reads pulp novels to him each night as he soaks his remaining fingers in Epsom salts. His brothers urge him to "flip the Wicked Bird" any time another child makes fun of his "lobster-red hand." Doug shares his summer of healing in Wabash, Indiana, with humans and animals who've suffered life-changing traumas: a brutal grandfather gentled by stroke, a deaf dog with a deadly taste for pig's ears, a tough-love mother coping with depression, a bevy of runt piglets saved from extermination. This is a story of love, loss, healing, and a family's relation with the land they love and know that they will lose.
Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home--A Memoir
by Lise FunderburgPig Candyis the poignant and often comical story of a grown daughter getting to know her dying father in his last months. During a series of visits with her father to the South he'd escaped as a young black man, Lise Funderburg, the mixed-race author of the acclaimedBlack, White, Other, comes to understand his rich and difficult background and the conflicting choices he has had to make throughout his life. Lise Funderburg is a child of the '60s, a white-looking mixed-race girl raised in an integrated Philadelphia neighborhood. As a child, she couldn't imagine what had made her father so strict, demanding, and elusive; about his past she knew only that he had grown up in the Jim Crow South and fled its brutal oppression as a young man. Then, just as she hits her forties, her father is diagnosed with advanced and terminal cancer -- an event that leads father and daughter together on a stream of pilgrimages to his hometown in rural Jasper County, Georgia. As her father's escort, proxy, and, finally, nurse, Funderburg encounters for the first time the fragrant landscape and fraught society -- and the extraordinary food -- of his childhood. In succulent, evocative, and sometimes tart prose, the author brings to life a fading rural South of pecan groves, family-run farms, and pork-laden country cuisine. She chronicles small-town relationships that span generations, the dismantling of her own assumptions about when race does and doesn't matter, and the quiet segregation that persists to this day. As Funderburg discovers the place and people her father comes from, she also, finally, gets to know her magnetic, idiosyncratic father himself. Her account of their thorny but increasingly close relationship is full of warmth, humor, and disarming candor. In one of his last grand actsFunderburg's father recruits his children, neighbors, and friends to throw a pig roast -- an unforgettable meal that caps an unforgettable portrait of a man enjoying his life and loved ones right up through his final days. Pig Candytakes readers on a stunning journey that becomes a universal investigation of identity and a celebration of the human will, familial love, and, ultimately, life itself.
Pig In The Middle
by Matt WhymanWhat happens when a man wonders aloud if a pig would make a good pet? A great deal - once his wife discovers a kind the size of a handbag.Matt Whyman is a writer and house husband. He enjoys the quiet life. His career wife, Emma, prefers the chaos a big brood can bring. On top of four challenging children, one freaked-out feline, a wolf-like dog and a wild bunch of ex-battery chickens, she brings minipigs Butch and Roxi into the fold.But can the new arrivals really cuddle up on the sofa, or will their growing presence spark a battle of hearts, snouts and minds?Funny, touching and entertaining, Pig in the Middle charts the trials and errors of one man and his menagerie. With help and advice from a seasoned local smallholder, Matt sets out to master the art of managing minipigs - inside the house and out. Then someone suggests breeding minipiglets, and Matt's understanding of marriage is tested in the most unexpected ways...Previously published as OINK! MY LIFE WITH MINIPIGS.
Pig Latin: A Seriously Funny True Story of a Former Police Officer
by Nick Palmisciano Eric TanseyFrom cop-turned-comic Eric Tansey, a hilarious and humanizing portrait of law enforcement for fans of Walk the Blue Line and You Can&’t Make This Stuff Up.Eric Tansey, a former Army scout and Special Operations military veteran, joined the police force with a ton of unrealistic expectations. The reality of the job knocked him down and changed his perspective on everything. Always a magnet for uncanny, wild situations, Tansey reveals exactly what it&’s like to deal with everyday life as a police officer—from trying to tackle naked suspects to pepper spraying yourself in the face, from dealing with an angry mob to coaxing suicidal subjects off a bridge, an uncut version of everything is included. Going behind the badge to bring the public a real understanding of the job, Pig Latin hopes to help inspire sympathy rather than condemnation and to encourage current law enforcement with the knowledge that they are not alone in their mistakes, their fear, and their experience on the job.
Pig Years
by Ellyn GaydosThis captivating memoir is a &“startling testimony to the glories and sorrows of raising and harvesting plants and animals&” (Anthony Doerr, best-selling author of All the Light We Cannot See), as an itinerant farmhand chronicles the wonders hidden within the ever-blooming seasons of life, death, and rebirth.Pig Years catapults American nature writing into the 21st century, and has been hailed by Lydia Davis and Aimee Nezhukumatathil as &“engrossing&” and &“a marvel.&” As a farmer in Upstate New York and Vermont, Ellyn Gaydos lives on the knife edge between loss and gain. Her debut memoir draws us into this precarious world, conjuring with stark simplicity the lifeblood of the farm: its livestock and stark full moons, the sharp cold days lives near to the land. Joy and tragedy are frequent bedfellows. Fields go barren and animals meet their end too soon, but then their bodies become food in a time-old human ritual. Seasonal hands are ground down by the hard work, but new relationships are formed, love blossoms and Gaydos yearns to become a mother. As winter&’s dark descends, Pig Years draws us into a violent and gorgeous world where pigs are star-bright symbols of hope and beauty surfaces in the furrows, the sow, even in the slaughter.In hardy, lyrical prose that recalls the agrarian writing of Annie Dillard and Wendell Berry, Gaydos asks us to bear witness to the work that sustains us all and to reconsider what we know of survival and what saves us. Pig Years is a rapturous reckoning of love, labor, and loss within a landscape given to flux.
Pig in the Middle
by Matt WhymanWhat happens when a man wonders aloud if a pig would make a good pet? A great deal - once his wife discovers a kind the size of a handbag.Matt Whyman is a writer and house husband. He enjoys the quiet life. His career wife, Emma, prefers the chaos a big brood can bring. On top of four challenging children, one freaked-out feline, a wolf-like dog and a wild bunch of ex-battery chickens, she brings minipigs Butch and Roxi into the fold.But can the new arrivals really cuddle up on the sofa, or will their growing presence spark a battle of hearts, snouts and minds?Funny, touching and entertaining, Pig in the Middle charts the trials and errors of one man and his menagerie. With help and advice from a seasoned local smallholder, Matt sets out to master the art of managing minipigs - inside the house and out. Then someone suggests breeding minipiglets, and Matt's understanding of marriage is tested in the most unexpected ways...Previously published as OINK! MY LIFE WITH MINIPIGS.
Pigeon in a Crosswalk
by Jack GrayFrom television producer Jack Gray comes a generational account of finding one's way at work, at home, and even across the street. There are a lot of unforgettable characters in these pages: a loveable if possibly alcoholic dog; a set of grandparents who crush on Alex Trebek and obsess about death; Golden Girls and blue bloods, anchormen and Supreme Court justices; divas and wags--but the best character of all is the author himself. To read Jack Gray's musings is to enter the company of a young man of titanic wit and talent. As he observes and echoes the fixations and neuroses of his generation and our times, he will make you squirm, guffaw, and ultimately marvel.
Pigeon in a Crosswalk: Tales of Anxiety and Accidental Glamour
by Jack GrayFrom television producer Jack Gray comes a generational account of finding one's way at work, at home, and even across the street. There are a lot of unforgettable characters in these pages: a loveable if possibly alcoholic dog; a set of grandparents who crush on Alex Trebek and obsess about death; Golden Girls and blue bloods, anchormen and Supreme Court justices; divas and wags--but the best character of all is the author himself. To read Jack Gray's musings is to enter the company of a young man of titanic wit and talent. As he observes and echoes the fixations and neuroses of his generation and our times, he will make you squirm, guffaw, and ultimately marvel.
Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family
by Mim Eichler Rivas Melissa ShapiroNamed a Best Feel-Good Book by The Washington Post In the tradition of the beloved New York Times bestsellers Marley and Me and Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love, a charming, inspirational memoir about empathy, resilience, kindness, and an adorable deaf blind pink dog.When Connecticut veterinarian Melissa Shapiro gets a call about a tiny deaf blind puppy rescued from a hoarding situation in need of fostering, she doesn&’t hesitate to say, &“yes.&” Little does she know how that decision will transform her, her family, and legions of admirers destined to embrace the saga of the indomitable pink pup. One of the most anxious dogs Melissa had ever encountered, the traumatized Piglet weighed under two pounds upon his welcome into the Shapiro household—which included Melissa&’s husband Warren and their three college-aged kids, plus six other rescued dogs. After weeks of reassurance, and lots of love, Piglet connected, gained confidence, and his extraordinary spirit emerged. Melissa soon forged a powerful bond with Piglet, allowing the two to communicate without sound or visual cues. Two months later, when the day arrived to say good-bye to the now dashing, six-pound pink boy dog with the larger than life spirit, Melissa faced a heart-wrenching decision. Could she hand him over to someone willing to give Piglet the full-time attention he required or could she adapt her schedule and her household to make a permanent place for him in her life and work? Of course, the answer was simple: love would find a way. Curious, engaged, and incredibly eager to learn, Piglet quickly became part of the family. What started out as a few simple Facebook posts of Piglet and his pack rapidly evolved into a global celebration of Piglet&’s infectiously positive mindset. Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family fully illustrates this heartwarming story of one special little puppy with a purpose to teach the power of empathy, love, and kindness.
Pigs Can Fly
by Barry CryerBarry Cryer has collaborated with all the greats from Max Miller to Tony Hancock, Bob Hope, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Frankie Howerd, Kenny Everett, Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes, Dave Allen, Richard Prior, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Graham Chapman, the Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise - in fact, almost all the great comedians and comic writers since the mid 1950s. This audio book is packed with jokes, fascinating asides, a huge range of real-life incidents and riveting behind-the-scenes portraits of famous names recounted by a master of comic timing.Read by Barry Cryer(p) 2004 Orion Publishing Group
Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)
by Helen PeppeAn outrageous, hilarious, and touching memoir by the youngest of nine children in a hardscrabble, beyond-eccentric Maine family. With everything happening on Helen Peppe’s backwoods Maine farm, life was wild--and not just for the animals. Sibling rivalry, rock-bottom poverty, feral male chauvinism, sex in the hayloft: everything seemed--and was--out of control. In telling her wayward family tale, Peppe manages deadpan humor, an unerring eye for the absurd, and poignant compassion for her utterly overwhelmed parents. While her feisty resilience and candor will inevitably remind readers of Jeannette Walls or Mary Karr, Peppe's wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own. As Richard Hoffman, the author of Half the House: A Memoir puts it: "Pigs Can't Swim is an unruly, joyous troublemaker of a book. "
Pigs in Clover: Or How I Accidentally Fell in Love with the Good Life
by Simon DawsonThis is the true story of a Londoner who gives up his job as an estate agent in the city, moves to the wilds of Exmoor, starts a smallholding and becomes self-sufficient, with a few bumps along the way. Simon's journey from urbanite to self-sufficient smallholder is brimming with incidents - some funny and some tragic - leading him to question Mother Nature, himself, the food he eats, and his role in it all. Which makes the transition from city life to self-sufficient smallholder slow, emotional and, for him, often confusing, but it is also beautiful, warming and laugh-out-loud funny.So if you would like to spend time with an accidental smallholder who completely changed one drunken night in Devon, then join Simon, his wife and their extended family as they learn the truth of what it takes to live a self-sufficient life, before eventually becoming as happy as the proverbial pigs in clover.
Pigs in Clover: Or How I Accidentally Fell in Love with the Good Life
by Simon DawsonThis is the true story of a Londoner who gives up his job as an estate agent in the city, moves to the wilds of Exmoor, starts a smallholding and becomes self-sufficient, with a few bumps along the way. Simon's journey from urbanite to self-sufficient smallholder is brimming with incidents - some funny and some tragic - leading him to question Mother Nature, himself, the food he eats, and his role in it all. Which makes the transition from city life to self-sufficient smallholder slow, emotional and, for him, often confusing, but it is also beautiful, warming and laugh-out-loud funny. So if you would like to spend time with an accidental smallholder who completely changed one drunken night in Devon, then join Simon, his wife and their extended family as they learn the truth of what it takes to live a self-sufficient life, before eventually becoming as happy as the proverbial pigs in clover.
Pigs in Clover: Or How I Accidentally Fell in Love with the Good Life
by Simon DawsonThis is the true story of a Londoner who gives up his job as an estate agent in the city, moves to the wilds of Exmoor, starts a smallholding and becomes self-sufficient, with a few bumps along the way. Simon's journey from urbanite to self-sufficient smallholder is brimming with incidents - some funny and some tragic - leading him to question Mother Nature, himself, the food he eats, and his role in it all. Which makes the transition from city life to self-sufficient smallholder slow, emotional and, for him, often confusing, but it is also beautiful, warming and laugh-out-loud funny.So if you would like to spend time with an accidental smallholder who completely changed one drunken night in Devon, then join Simon, his wife and their extended family as they learn the truth of what it takes to live a self-sufficient life, before eventually becoming as happy as the proverbial pigs in clover.(p) 2016 Magna Large Print Books
Pilate and Jesus (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)
by Giorgio Agamben translated by Adam KotskoPontius Pilate is one of the most enigmatic figures in Christian theology. The only non-Christian to be named in the Nicene Creed, he is presented as a cruel colonial overseer in secular accounts, as a conflicted judge convinced of Jesus's innocence in the Gospels, and as either a pious Christian or a virtual demon in later Christian writings. This book takes Pilate's role in the trial of Jesus as a starting point for investigating the function of legal judgment in Western society and the ways that such judgment requires us to adjudicate the competing claims of the eternal and the historical. Coming just as Agamben is bringing his decades-long Homo Sacer project to an end, Pilate and Jesus sheds considerable light on what is at stake in that series as a whole. At the same time, it stands on its own, perhaps more than any of the author's recent works. It thus serves as a perfect starting place for readers who are curious about Agamben's approach but do not know where to begin.
Pilgram Marpeck His Life and Social Theology
by Stephen B. BoydThis intellectual and social history is the first comprehensive biography of Pilgram Marpeck (c. 1495-1556), a radical reformer and lay leader of Anabaptist groups in Switzerland, Austria, and South Germany. Marpeck's influential life and work provide a glimpse of the theologies and practices of the Roman Church and of various reform movements in sixteenth-century Europe. Drawing on extensive archival data documenting Marpeck's professional life, as well as on his numerous published and unpublished writings on theology and religious reform, Stephen B. Boyd traces Marpeck's unconventional transition from mining magistrate to Anabaptist leader, establishes his connections with various radical social and religious groups, and articulates aspects of his social theology. Marpeck's distinctive and eclectic theology, Boyd demonstrates, focused on the need for personal, uncoerced conversion, rejected state interference in the affairs of the church, denied the need for a monastic withdrawal from the secular world, and called for the Christian's active pursuit of justice before God and among human beings.
Pilgrim
by Lee KravitzA former editor in chief of Parade magazine embarks on a spiritual quest that goes to the heart of what really matters in life Lee Kravitz is adrift--shaken deeply after 9/11 and the loss of his job, he begins to feel the pull toward rediscovering his spirituality. He faces resistance from his wife, who doesn't understand why their family life can't provide what he needs, but when he suffers what he thinks is a heart attack and calls out for God, Lee realizes he must take action. His journey takes him to many places--Quaker meetings, Catholic mass, and even sessions with an astrologer--and blends memoir, religion, and science, culminating in a narrative that speaks to the universal need to feel connected to the world around us. In documenting his quest to pursue a contemplative life in the chaos of everyday existence and fit his religion-shaped needs into a secular mold, Lee offers a blueprint for anyone who might find himself lost at one point or another. With forays into meditation, Quakerism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Protestantism, Judaism, and more, Pilgrim is an engrossing, thoughtful, and stirring guide for readers of Kathleen Norris and Anne Lamott.
Pilgrim Souls: A Collection of Spiritual Autobiography
by Amy Mandelker Elizabeth PowersWhat is the source of personal writing? When do we begin to consider our own lives worthy of a story? These powerful and passionate selections of spiritual autobiography do not merely represent a vital literary tradition; they bring together fifty-eight writers whose search for truth and understanding has spanned over two millennia and several continents. From Saint Augustine and Rabi'a to T. S. Eliot and Kathleen Norris, each of these autobiographers tells the story of the inner life as a spiritual quest. Although separated culturally, historically, and linguistically, they are united by their efforts to respond to Socrates' challenge to "know thyself. " In four parts this insightful collection includes works by: * Wanderers and seekers, like Leo Tolstoy and Thomas Merton, who feverishly explore many experiences and world views * Pilgrims and missionaries, like Anne Bradstreet and David Livingstone, who unwaveringly pursue God and holiness in lives of self-sacrifice * Mystics and visionaries, like Julian of Norwich and Annie Dillard, who discover the ecstasy of epiphany in a life of contemplation and seclusion * Scholars and philosophers, like Simone Weil and Blaise Pascal, who seek to ground spiritual conviction in a rational certitude. Strong, deep, and enduring, the selections in this illuminating anthology remind us that "the unexamined life is not worth living" and speak to us with an immediacy that transcends time and space.