First U.S. Publication A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of SylviaPlath, published in their entirety for the first time. Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in aheavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes.This new edition is an exact and complete tran*ion of thediaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixtypercent of the book is material that has never before been madepublic, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personaland literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both herfrequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down herdemons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essentialreading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's lifeand work. First U.S. Publication A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of SylviaPlath, published in their entirety for the first time. Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in aheavily abridged ve

He was a brilliant teller of tales, one of the most widelyread authors of the twentieth century, and at one time the mostfamous writer in the world, yet W. Somerset Maugham’s own truestory has never been fully told. At last, the fascinating truth isrevealed in a landmark biography by the award-winning writer SelinaHastings. Granted unprecedented access to Maugham’s personalcorrespondence and to newly uncovered interviews with his onlychild, Hastings portrays the secret loves, betrayals, integrity,and passion that inspired Maugham to create such classics as TheRazor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage. Hastings vividly presents Maugham’s lonely childhood spentwith unloving relatives after the death of his parents, a traumathat resulted in shyness, a stammer, and for the rest of his lifean urgent need for physical tenderness. Here, too, are his adulttriumphs on the stage and page, works that allowed him a glitteringsocial life in which he befriended and sometimes fell out with suchluminaries as Do

Growing up in Bavaria during World War II, Ernestine Bradleycame to know wartime dislocations and food shortages, along withthe challenges of taking care of her siblings while her mother wasill. The men of her hometown were away at war, but their absencecreated an exciting unexpected freedom–a freedom she sought againat 21 when she became a stewardess, moved to New York and went onto marry a shy basketball star who played for the New YorkKnicks. Yet the paradoxes of her childhood shaped Bradley’s life. Herhard-won discipline helped her maintain a full-time career as aprofessor while she commuted weekly to Washington and her husband’spublic life; and Germany’s literary response to the holocaust ofwhich she had been unaware became her scholarly passion. Cancerconfronted her with a personal war, ultimately demanding avulnerability she had never allowed herself. Frank, warm, anddeeply moving, The Way Home is an inspiring American story.

Robert Hughes, who has stunned us with comprehensive works onsubjects as sweeping and complex as the history of Australia (TheFatal Shore), the modern art movement (The Shock of the New), thenature of American art (American Visions), and the nature ofAmerica itself as seen through its art (The Culture of Complaint),now turns his renowned critical eye to one of art history’s mostcompelling, enigmatic, and important figures, Francisco José deGoya y Lucientes. With characteristic critical fervor and sure-eyedinsight, Hughes brings us the story of an artist whose life andwork bridged the transition from the eighteenth-century reign ofthe old masters to the early days of the nineteenth-centurymoderns. With his salient passion for the artist and theart, Hughes brings Goya vividly to life through dazzling analysisof a vast breadth of his work. Building upon the historicalevidence that exists, Hughes tracks Goya’s development, as man andartist, without missing a beat, from the early works commissionedby the

Tony Blair has dominated British political life for more thana decade. Like Margaret Thatcher before him, he has changed theterms of political debate and provoked as much condemnation asadmiration. At the end of his era in power, this book presents awide-ranging overview of the achievements and failures of the Blairgovernments. Bringing together Britain's most eminent academics andcommentators on British politics and society, it examines theeffect of the Prime Minister and his administration on themachinery of government, economic and social policy and foreignrelations. Combining serious scholarship with clarity andaccessibility, this book represents the authoritative verdict onthe impact of the Blair years on British politics andsociety. Covers the full term of Blair's leadership of Labour ? AnthonySeldon is a recognized authority on British Prime Ministers, andTony Blair in particular ? Uniquely authoritative with a superbcollection of contributors including John Curtice, Vernon Bogdanor,Sir La

Near the beginning of The Autobiography of an Execution, DavidDow lays his cards on the table. "People think that because I amagainst the death penalty and don't think people should beexecuted, that I forgive those people for what they did. Well, itisn't my place to forgive people, and if it were, I probablywouldn't. I'm a judgmental and not very forgiving guy. Just ask mywife." It this spellbinding true crime narrative, Dow takes us insideof prisons, inside the complicated minds of judges, insideexecution-administration chambers, into the lives of death rowinmates (some shown to be innocent, others not) and even into hisown home--where the toll of working on these gnarled and difficultcases is perhaps inevitably paid. He sheds insight onto unexpectedphenomena-- how even religious lawyer and justices can evince deeprooted support for putting criminals to death-- and makes palpablethe suspense that clings to every word and action when human liveshang in the balance.

The adventure begins when Meg’s mother, Addie, vacationing inFlorida, takes a spill. At the hospital, Addie bolts upright on hergurney and yells “I demand an autopsy!” before passing outcold. “One minute, she is unconscious, the next, she’s nuts,” observesMeg Federico in this hilarious and poignant memoir of taking careof eighty-year-old Addie and her relatively new (and equally old)husband, Walter, in their not-so-golden years. Addie’s accident is a portent of things to come over the next twoyears as Meg oversees her mother’s home care in the DepartureLounge, the nickname Meg gives Addie and Walter’s house in suburbanNew Jersey. It is a place of odd behaviors and clashing caregivers,where chaos and confusion reign supreme. Meg had expected that Addie and Walter would settle into aRockwellian dotage of docile dependency. Instead the pair regressinto terrible teens. Meg watches from the sidelines in disbelief asher mother and stepfather, forbidden by doctors to drink, conspireto order cas

Bestselling author A. E. Hotchner's intimate account of his53-year friendship with his pal Paul Newman. A. E. Hotchner first met Paul Newman in 1955 when the virtuallyunknown actor assumed the lead role in Hotchner’s first televisionplay, based on an Ernest Hemingway story. The project elevated bothmen from relative obscurity to recognition and began a close andtrusted friendship that lasted until Newman’s death in 2008. In Paul and Me, Hotchner depicts a complicated, unpredictable,fun-loving, talented man, and takes the reader along on theiradventures. The pair traveled extensively, skippered a successionof bizarre boats, confounded the business world, scored triumphs onthe stage, and sustained their friendship through good times andbad. Most notably, they started Newman’s Own as a prank andwatched it morph into a major enterprise that so far has donatedall its $300 million in profit to charities including the Hole inthe Wall Camps worldwide, dedicated to helping thousands ofchildre

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story ofthe Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and JohnRomero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popularculture. And they provoked a national controversy. More thananything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream,escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the mostnotoriously successful game franchises in history— Doom and Quake — until the games they made tore them apart. This is astory of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerfuland compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven,and wildly creative.