- Table View
- List View
Woody Guthrie: A Life
by Joe KleinBiography of the singer, songmaker and restless spirit who defined the American character for a generation.
Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life
by Gustavus StadlerDismantles the Woody Guthrie we have been taught--the rough-and-ready ramblin' man--to reveal an artist who discovered how intimacy is crucial for political struggleWoody Guthrie is often mythologized as the classic American "ramblin' man," a real-life Steinbeckian folk hero who fought for working-class interests and inspired Bob Dylan. Biographers and fans frame him as a foe of fascism and focus on his politically charged folk songs. What's left unexamined is how the bulk of Guthrie's work--most of which is unpublished or little known--delves into the importance of intimacy in his personal and political life. Featuring an insert with personal photos of Guthrie's family and previously unknown paintings, Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life is a fresh and contemporary analysis of the overlapping influences of sexuality, politics, and disability on the art and mind of an American folk icon.Part biography, part cultural history of the Left, Woody Guthrie offers a stunning revelation about America's quintessential folk legend, who serves as a guiding light for leftist movements today. In his close relationship with dancer Marjorie Mazia, Guthrie discovered a restorative way of thinking about the body, which provided a salve for the trauma of his childhood and the slowly debilitating effects of Huntington's disease. Rejecting bodily shame and embracing the power of sexuality, he came to believe that intimacy was the linchpin for political struggle. By closely connecting to others, society could combat the customary emotional states of capitalist cultures: loneliness and isolation. Using intimacy as one's weapon, Guthrie believed we could fight fascism's seductive call.
Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History's Most Iconic Extinct Creatures
by Ben MezrichScience fiction becomes reality in this Jurassic Park-like story of the genetic resurrection of an extinct species—the woolly mammoth—by the bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and The 37th Parallel.“With his knack for turning narrative nonfiction into stories worthy of the best thriller fiction” (Omnivoracious), Ben Mezrich takes us on an exhilarating true adventure story from the icy terrain of Siberia to the cutting-edge genetic labs of Harvard University. A group of young scientists, under the guidance of Dr. George Church, the most brilliant geneticist of our time, works to make fantasy reality by sequencing the DNA of a frozen woolly mammoth harvested from above the Arctic circle, and splicing elements of that sequence into the DNA of a modern elephant. Will they be able to turn the hybrid cells into a functional embryo and bring the extinct creatures to life in our modern world? Along with Church and his team of Harvard scientists, a world-famous conservationist and a genius Russian scientist plan to turn a tract of the Siberian tundra into Pleistocene Park, populating the permafrost with ancient herbivores as a hedge against an environmental ticking time bomb. More than a story of genetics, this is a thriller illuminating the race against global warming, the incredible power of modern technology, the brave fossil hunters who battle polar bears and extreme weather conditions, and the ethical quandary of cloning extinct animals. Can we right the wrongs of our ancestors who hunted the woolly mammoth to extinction—and at what cost?
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
by Kory StamperDo you have strong feelings about the word “irregardless”? Have you ever tried to define the word “is”? Brimming with intelligence and personality, this vastly entertaining account of how dictionaries are made is a must-read for word mavens. Many of us take dictionaries for granted, and few may realize that the process of writing dictionaries is, in fact, as lively and dynamic as language itself. With sharp wit and irreverence, Kory Stamper cracks open the complex, obsessive world of lexicography, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it, to the knotty questions of usage in an ever-changing language. She explains why small words are the most difficult to define, how it can take nine months to define a single word, and how our biases about language and pronunciation can have tremendous social influence. And along the way, she reveals little-known surprises—for example, the fact that “OMG” was first used in a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917. Word by Word brings to life the hallowed halls (and highly idiosyncratic cubicles) of Merriam-Webster, a startlingly rich world inhabited by quirky and erudite individuals who quietly shape the way we communicate. Certain to be a delight for all lovers of words, Stamper’s debut will make you laugh as much as it makes you appreciate the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.
The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary
by John Simpson"A charmingly full, frank, and humorous account of a career dedicated to rigorous lexicographic rectitude. . . . He is an absolute hero."-Lynne Truss, New York TimesCan you drink a glass of balderdash? And what do you call the part of a dog's back it can't scratch? The answers to these questions can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. There is no better guide to the dictionary's many wonderments than its former chief editor, John Simpson. In The Word Detective, an intensely personal memoir and a joyful celebration of English, he weaves a story of how words come into being, how culture shapes language, and how technology transforms words. A brilliant and deeply humane expedition through the world of words, The Word Detective will delight and inspire any lover of language.
The Word Detective: A Life in Words: From Serendipity to Selfie
by John SimpsonLanguage is always changing. No one knows where it is going but the best way to future-cast is to look at the past. John Simpson animates for us a tradition of researching and editing, showing us both the technical lexicography needed to understand a word, and the careful poetry needed to construct its definition. He challenges both the idea that dictionaries are definitive, and the notion that language is falling apart. With a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at bureaucracy and an inclination to question the status quo, John Simpson gives life to the colourful characters at the OED and to the English language itself. He splices his stories with entertaining and erudite diversions into the history and origin of words such as 'kangaroo', 'hot-dog' , 'pommie', 'bicycle' , not ignoring those swearwords often classed as 'Anglo-Saxon' ! The book will speak to anyone who uses a dictionary, 'word people' , history lovers, students and parents.
A Word for Nature
by Robert L. DormanThe careers and ideas of four figures of monumental importance in the history of American conservation--George Perkins Marsh, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Wesley Powell--are explored in A Word for Nature. Robert Dorman offers lively portraits of each of these early environmental advocates, who witnessed firsthand the impact of economic expansion and industrial revolution on fragile landscapes from the forests of New England to the mountains of the West. By examining the nineteenth-century world in which the fourmen lived--its society, economy, politics, and culture--Dormansheds light on the roots of American environmentalism. Heprovides an overview of the early decades of both resourceconservation and wilderness preservation, discussing how Marsh, Thoreau, Muir, and Powell helped define the issues that began changing the nation's attitudes toward its environment by the early twentieth century. Dorman's readings of works including Marsh's Man and Nature, Thoreau's The Maine Woods, Muir's The Mountains of California, and Powell's Report on the Lands of the Arid Region reveal their authors' influence on environmental thought and politics even up to the present day.
Word for Word: A Translator's Memoir of Literature, Politics, and Survival in Soviet Russia
by Lilianna LunginaA remarkable memoir of living in the Soviet Union and working as a literary translator. In the early twentieth century, Lilianna Lungina was a Russian Jew born to privilege, spending her childhood in Germany, France, and Palestine. But when she was thirteen, her parents moved to the USSR—where Lungina became witness to many of the era&’s greatest upheavals. Exiled during World War II, dragged to KGB headquarters to report on her friends, and subjected to her new country&’s ruthless, systematic anti-Semitism, Lungina nonetheless carved out a career as a translator, introducing hundreds of thousands of Soviet readers to Knut Hamsun, August Strindberg, and, most famously, Astrid Lindgren. In the process, she found herself at the very center of Soviet cultural life, meeting and befriending Pasternak, Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and many other major literary figures of the era. Her extraordinary memoir—at once heartfelt and unsentimental—is an unparalleled tribute to a lost world.
Word Monkey
by Christopher Fowler'A delight . . . a glorious, witty and life-affirming ragbag of autobiography, cultural commentary and hard-won wisdom.' ANDREW TAYLOR, author of The Shadows of London'Perceptive, wise and illuminating . . . an unmissable farewell.' Barry Forshaw, FINANCIAL TIMES'The most hilarious, life-affirming book you’ll read this year.' SAGA magazine'Wit and wisdom that make every page turn . . . what a fine talent the world has lost.' STARBURSTThis is the memoir Christopher Fowler always wanted to write about 'writing'.It's the story of how a young bookworm growing up in a house where there was nothing to read but knitting pamphlets and motorcycle manuals became a writer - a 'word monkey' - and pursued a sort of career in popular fiction. And it's a book full of brilliant insights into the pleasures and pitfalls of his profession, dos and don'ts for would-be writers, and astute observations on favourite (and not-so-favourite) novelists.But woven into this hugely entertaining and inspiring reflection on a literary life is an altogether darker thread. In Spring 2020, just as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And yet there is nothing of the misery memoir about Word Monkey. Past and present intermingle as, in prose as light as air, he relates with wry humour and remarkable honesty what he knows will be the final chapter in his story.Deeply moving, insightful and surprisingly funny, this is Christopher Fowler's life-affirming account of coming to terms with his own mortality.'A remarkable book by a remarkable writer: amazingly entertaining and informative and also, for obvious reasons, one of the most moving.' SIMON MASON, author of the DI Wilkins Mysteries'Wonderful . . . there is no bitterness here, but a hearty celebration of how art defines a life, with dark humour on the right occasions and the deliberate aim to leave a positive message . . . his enthusiasm is infectious and sobering when you are aware that he was dying as he wrote these pages.' Maxim Jacubowski, CRIME TIME
Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom
by Sonja D WilliamsPosthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2007, Richard Durham creatively chronicled and brought to life the significant events of his times. Durham's trademark narrative style engaged listeners with fascinating characters, compelling details, and sharp images of pivotal moments in American and African American history and culture. In Word Warrior , award-winning radio producer Sonja D. Williams draws on archives and hard-to-access family records, as well as interviews with family and colleagues like Studs Terkel and Toni Morrison, to illuminate Durham's astounding career. Durham paved the way for black journalists as a dramatist and a star investigative reporter and editor for the pioneering black newspapers the Chicago Defender and Muhammed Speaks . Talented and versatile, he also created the acclaimed radio series Destination Freedom and Here Comes Tomorrow and wrote for popular radio fare like The Lone Ranger . Incredibly, his energies extended still further--to community and labor organizing, advising Chicago mayoral hopeful Harold Washington, and mentoring generations of activists. Incisive and in-depth, Word Warrior tells the story of a tireless champion of African American freedom, equality, and justice during an epoch that forever changed a nation.
Words and Worlds: From Autobiography to Zippers
by Alison LuriePoignant remembrances and sharp observations from the “most able and witty” Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Foreign Affairs (The New York Times). This engaging new collection of essays from the New York Times–bestselling novelist gathers together her reflections on the writing life; fond recollections of inspiring friends; and perceptive, playful commentary on preoccupations ranging from children’s literature to fashion and feminism. Citing her husband’s comment to her that “Nobody asked you to write a novel,” Lurie goes on to eloquently explain why there was never another choice for her. She looks back on attending Radcliffe in the 1940s—an era of wartime rations and a wall of sexism where it was understood that Harvard was only for the men. From offering a gleeful glimpse into Jonathan Miller’s production of Hamlet to memorializing mentors and intimate friends such as poet James Merrill, illustrator Edward Gorey, and New York Times Book Review coeditor Barbara Epstein, Lurie celebrates the creative artists who encouraged and inspired her. A lifelong devotee of children’s literature, she suggests saying no to Narnia, revisits the phenomenon of Harry Potter, and tells the truth about the ultimate good bad boy, Pinocchio. Returning to a favorite subject, fashion, Lurie explores the symbolic meaning of aprons, enthuses on how the zipper made dressing and undressing faster—and sexier—and tells how, feeling abandoned by Vogue at age sixty, she finally found herself freed from fashion’s restrictions on women. Always spirited no matter the subject, Lurie ultimately conveys a joie de vivre that comes from a lifetime of never abandoning her “childish impulse to play with words, to reimagine the world.”
Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur
by Dean Van NguyenBefore his murder at twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the pre-eminent storyteller of the 90s, building, in the process, one of the most iconic public personas of the last half century. He recorded several platinum-selling albums, starred in major films and became an activist and political hero known the world over.In this cultural history and brilliantly researched biography, Dean Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac's coming of age, fame and influence and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a revolutionary following the George Floyd uprising. Words for My Comrades crucially engages with the influence of Tupac's mother, Afeni, whose role in the Black Panther Party, with its dedication to dismantling American imperialism and police brutality, informed Tupac's art. Tupac's childhood as a son of the Panthers, coupled with the influence of his militant stepfather Mutulu Shakur, became his own riveting code of ethics that helped listeners reckon with America's inherent injustices.Drawing upon conversations with the people who bore witness - from Panther veterans and other committed Marxist revolutionaries of 1970s America, to good friends and close collaborators of the rapper himself - Van Nguyen demonstrates how Tupac became one of the most enduring musical legends in hip-hop history and how intimately his name is threaded with the legacy of Black Panther politics. Words for My Comrades is the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by culture and how America produced, in Tupac and Afeni, two of its most iconic, enduring revolutionaries.
Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur
by Dean Van NguyenBefore his murder at twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the pre-eminent storyteller of the 90s, building, in the process, one of the most iconic public personas of the last half century. He recorded several platinum-selling albums, starred in major films and became an activist and political hero known the world over.In this cultural history and brilliantly researched biography, Dean Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac's coming of age, fame and influence and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a revolutionary following the George Floyd uprising. Words for My Comrades crucially engages with the influence of Tupac's mother, Afeni, whose role in the Black Panther Party, with its dedication to dismantling American imperialism and police brutality, informed Tupac's art. Tupac's childhood as a son of the Panthers, coupled with the influence of his militant stepfather Mutulu Shakur, became his own riveting code of ethics that helped listeners reckon with America's inherent injustices.Drawing upon conversations with the people who bore witness - from Panther veterans and other committed Marxist revolutionaries of 1970s America, to good friends and close collaborators of the rapper himself - Van Nguyen demonstrates how Tupac became one of the most enduring musical legends in hip-hop history and how intimately his name is threaded with the legacy of Black Panther politics. Words for My Comrades is the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by culture and how America produced, in Tupac and Afeni, two of its most iconic, enduring revolutionaries.
Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur
by Dean Van NguyenFrom Pitchfork and Guardian contributor Dean Van Nguyen comes a revelatory history of Tupac beyond his musical legend, as a radical son of the Black Panther Party whose political legacy still resonates today.Before his murder at age twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the preeminent storyteller of the 1990s, building, in the process, one of the most iconic public personas of the last half century. He recorded no fewer than ten platinum albums, starred in major films, and became an activist and political hero known the world over. In this cultural history, journalist Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac&’s coming of age, fame, and cultural capital, and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a revolutionary following the George Floyd uprisings. Words for My Comrades engages—crucially—with the influence of Tupac&’s mother, Afeni, whose role in the Black Panther Party and dedication to dismantling American imperialism and combating police brutality informed Tupac&’s art. Tupac&’s childhood as a son of the Panthers, coupled with the influence of his stepfather&’s Marxist beliefs, informed his own riveting code of ethics that helped audiences grapple with America&’s inherent injustices.Using oral histories from conversations with the people who directly witnessed Tupac&’s life and career, many of whom were interviewed for the first time here—from Panther elder Aaron Dixon, to music video director Stephen Ashley Blake, to friends and contemporaries of Tupac&’s mother—Van Nguyen demonstrates how Tupac became one of the most enduring musical legends in hip-hop history, and how intimately his name is threaded with the legacy of Black Panther politics.Van Nguyen reveals how Tupac and Afeni each championed the disenfranchised in distinct ways, and how their mother-son bond charts a narrative of the last fifty years of revolutionary Black American politics. Words for My Comrades is the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by culture, and how America produced two of its most iconic, enduring revolutionaries.
Words in a French Life
by Kristin EspinasseBased on the popular blog (french-word-a-day.com) and newsletter with thousands of subscribers -- a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language. Imagine a former French major getting vocabulary tips from her young children! That was the experience of Kristin Espinasse, an American who fell in love with a Frenchman and moved to his country to marry him and start a family. When her children began learning the language, she found herself falling in love with it all over again. To relate the stories of her sometimes bumpy, often comic, and always poignant assimilation, she created a blog in the tradition of books such as A Year in Provence and Almost French, drawing more admirers than she ever could have imagined. With an approach that is as charming as it is practical, Espinasse shares her story through the everyday French words and phrases that never seem to make it to American classrooms. "Comptoir" ("counter") is a piece about the intricacies of grocery shopping in France, and "Linge" ("laundry") swoons over the wonderful scent the laundry has after being hung out in the French countryside, while "Toquade" ("crush") tells of Espinasse's young son, who begins piling gel onto his hair before school each morning when he becomes smitten with a girl in class. Steeped in French culture but experienced through American eyes, Words in a French Life will delight armchair travelers, Francophiles, and mothers everywhere.
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
by Elizabeth Bishop Robert LowellRobert Lowell once remarked in a letter to Elizabeth Bishop that "you ha[ve] always been my favorite poet and favorite friend." The feeling was mutual. Bishop said that conversation with Lowell left her feeling "picked up again to the proper table-land of poetry," and she once begged him, "Please never stop writing me letters—they always manage to make me feel like my higher self (I've been re-reading Emerson) for several days." Neither ever stopped writing letters, from their first meeting in 1947 when both were young, newly launched poets until Lowell's death in 1977. Presented in Words in Air is the complete correspondence between Bishop and Lowell. The substantial, revealing—and often very funny—interchange that they produced stands as a remarkable collective achievement, notable for its sustained conversational brilliance of style, its wealth of literary history, its incisive snapshots and portraits of people and places, and its delicious literary gossip, as well as for the window it opens into the unfolding human and artistic drama of two of America's most beloved and influential poets.
Words of a Goat Princess
by Jessie ReyezA moving poetic debut from a talented artist, Words of a Goat Princess is everything you love about singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez—her rawness, her love affair with the ugly truths of humanity, and so much more.Words of a Goat Princess is the debut poetry collection about life’s struggle and triumphs from Grammy-nominated and JUNO-award winning songwriter Jessie Reyez.With the authenticity and heartbreaking relatability that her fans know and love her for, Reyez brings the breadth of her lived experience to the page as few recording artists can. At times ethereal and visceral, these 43 poems are carefully painted moments that expertly explore love, loss, and identity with an artistry that leaps off the page with every turn.Through this collection of poems and stories, Jessie Reyez shows that she is more than a pop performer, she is a true artist whose star knows no limits.
The Words of Abraham Lincoln
by Abraham LincolnFrom the "Four score and seven years ago" that every American schoolchild knows to personal notes and dozens of memorable letters, debates, and speeches from a critical time in this nation's history, here is a remarkable collection of Lincoln's writings. Through them, we can follow the sixteenth president's development from country lawyer to healer of a wounded nation. Arranged thematically, The Words of Abraham Lincoln brings together his early writings, his notes on courtship, marriage, and the family, his thoughts on slavery, including the full text of the Emancipation Proclamation, and his letters to his generals during the Civil War, among other subjects. This book includes eight historical photographs and a chronology. Two hundred years after his birth, Lincoln's writing endures. Witty and wise, Lincoln speaks today as powerfully as he did when he was president.
The Words of My Father: Love and Pain in Palestine
by Yousef BashirA Palestinian American recalls his adolescence in Gaza during the Second Intifada and how he made a commitment to peace in this transformative memoir.In the Gaza Strip, growing up on land owned by his family for centuries, fourteen-year-old Yousef Bashir was preoccupied with soccer, school pranks, and meeting his father’s impossibly high standards. Dignified and empathetic, kind yet strict, Yousef’s father was a pillar of strength for his family and community. Though he and Yousef butted heads fiercely, they loved each other unconditionally. Despite an Israeli settlement hovering on its periphery, the Gaza of Yousef’s childhood could only be described as a paradise.That all changed when the Second Intifada exploded, and Israeli soldiers seized the Bashir family home. Yousef was forced to learn the rules of a new life in captivity and to watch his father treat the invading soldiers as honored guests—a testament not only to his father’s desire for peace between Palestine and Israel but also to his unshakeable belief that it was truly within reach. Yet nothing could prepare Yousef or his father for the Israeli bullet that would instantly transform both of their lives . . . A riveting tale of a father and son, of reckoning and redemption, Yousef’s story is a heart-wrenching reminder in these troubled times that forgiveness is a gift—and a choice.
Words of Promise: A Story about James Weldon Johnson
by Jodie ShullThe young James Weldon Johnson seemed to defy the limits placed on African Americans. He found success as a teacher, lawyer, diplomat, and writer. But Johnson grew increasing disturbed by the harsh treatment blacks suffered. From 1916 to the 1930s, Johnson traveled the country, speaking out for equal opportunities for blacks. He worked to rapidly expand the membership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and became the first black to serve as the NAACP's executive secretary. All his life, Johnson believed in the power of words. It is fitting that today he is best known as a poetstatesman and the author of the words to "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
Words of the Dragon
by Bruce LeeThis collection of newspaper and magazine interviews with Bruce Lee follows his acting career from his debut in The Green Hornet to international stardom in The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon and Enter the Dragon.
Words of Witness: Black Women's Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era
by Angela A. ArdsA literary and political genealogy of the last half-century, Words of Witness explores black feminist autobiographical narratives in the context of activism and history since the landmark 1954 segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. Angela A. Ards examines how activist writers, especially five whose memoirs were published in the 1990s and 2000s, crafted these life stories to engage and shape progressive, post-Brown politics. Exploring works by the critically acclaimed June Jordan and Edwidge Danticat, as well as by popular and emerging authors such as Melba Beals, Rosemary Bray, and Eisa Davis, Ards demonstrates how each text asserts countermemories to official--and often nostalgic--understandings of the civil rights and Black Power movements. She situates each writer as activist-citizen, adopting and remaking particular roles--warrior, "the least of these," immigrant, hip-hop head--to crystallize a range of black feminist responses to urgent but unresolved political issues.
Words that Make New Jersey History: A Primary Source Reader (expanded edition)
by Howard L. GreenThis is a collection of readings related to New Jersey history, from the colonial era to the present. The pieces reflect New Jersey's diversity and the lives of ordinary people as well as political leaders. Examples range from an advertisement for a runaway servant, epitaphs on gravestones, political cartoons, soldiers' journals, and letters written during World War II.
Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto
by Michal GrynbergThe story of the Warsaw Ghetto told through twenty-eight never-before-published accounts-a precious and historic find.In the history of the Holocaust, the Warsaw Ghetto stands as the enduring symbol of Jewish suffering and heroism. This collective memoir-a mosaic of individual diaries, journals, and accounts-follows the fate of the Warsaw Jews from the first bombardments of the Polish capital to the razing of the Jewish district. The life of the ghetto appears here in striking detail: the frantic exchange of apartments as the walls first go up; the daily battle against starvation and disease; the moral ambiguities confronting Jewish bureaucracies under Nazi rule; the ingenuity of smugglers; and the acts of resistance.Written inside the ghetto or in hiding outside its walls, these extraordinary testimonies preserve voices otherwise consigned to oblivion: a woman doctor whose four-year-old son is deemed a threat to the hideout; a painter determined to complete his mural of Job and his trials; a ten-year-old girl barely eluding blackmailers on the Aryan side of the city. Stunning in their immediacy, the urgent accounts recorded here provide much more than invaluable historical detail: they challenge us to imagine the unimaginable.
The Words & Wisdom of Charles Johnson
by Charles JohnsonNational Book Award winner Charles Johnson muses about a wide range of topics, from Buddhism to race relations in America to his writing habits and everything in between. This collection gives readers a candid look into the mind of one of the most celebrated voices in American literature.