“You keep fighting, okay?” I whispered. “We’re in thistogether. You and me. You’re not alone. You hear me? You are notalone. ” 5:38 p.m. It was the precise moment Sean Manning was born and thetime each year that his mother wished him happy birthday. But justbefore he turned twenty-seven, their tradition collapsed. A heartattack landed his mom in the hospital and uprooted Manning from hislife in New York. What followed was a testament to a family’sindestructible bond—a life-changing odyssey that broke a boy andmade a man—captured here in Manning’s indelible memoir.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was the most famous American ofhis age. He claimed to have worked for the Pony Express when only aboy and to have scouted for General George Custer. But what was hisreal story? And how did a frontiersman become a worldwidecelebrity? In this prize-winning biography, acclaimed author Louis S. Warrenexplains not only how Cody exaggerated his real experience as anarmy scout and buffalo hunter, but also how that experienceinspired him to create the gigantic, traveling spectacle known asBuffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. A dazzling mix of Indians, cowboys,and vaqueros, they performed on two continents for three decades,offering a surprisingly modern view of the United States and aremarkably democratic version of its history. This definitivebiography reveals the genius of America’s greatest showman, and thestartling history of the American West that drove him and hisperformers to the world stage.

Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the secondcentury A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world byone of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In whatis by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch revealsthe character and personality of his subjects and how they ledultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full ofdetail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus andTheseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many morepowerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome. The present translation, originally published in 1683 inconjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes andpreface are also included in this edition.

Universally known and admired as a peacemaker, DagHammarskj?ld concealed a remarkable intense inner life which herecorded over several decades in this journal of poems andspiritual meditations, left to be published after his death. Adramatic account of spiritual struggle, Markings has inspiredhundreds of thousands of readers since it was first published in1964. Markings is distinctive, as W.H. Auden remarks in hisforeword, as a record of "the attempt by a professional man ofaction to unite in one life the via activa and the viacontemplativa." It reflects its author's efforts to live his creed,his belief that all men are equally the children of God and thatfaith and love require of him a life of selfless service to others.For Hammarskj?ld, "the road to holiness necessarily passes throughthe world of action." Markings is not only a fascinating glimpse ofthe mind of a great man, but also a moving spiritual classic thathas left its mark on generations of readers.

After her astonishing testimony in the Clarence Thomashearings, Anita Hill ceased to be a private citizen and became apublic figure at the white-hot center of an intense national debateon how men and women relate to each other in the workplace. Thatdebate led to ground-breaking court decisions and major shifts incorporate policies that have had a profound effect on ourlives--and on Anita Hill's life. Now, with remarkable insight andtotal candor, Anita Hill reflects on events before, during, andafter the hearings, offering for the first time a complete accountthat sheds startling new light on this watershed event.Only afterreading her moving recollection of her childhood on her family'sOklahoma farm can we fully appreciate the values that enabled herto withstand the harsh scrutiny she endured during the hearings andfor years afterward. Only after reading her detailed narrative ofthe Senate Judiciary proceedings do we reach a new understanding ofhow Washington--and the media--rush to judgment. And only a

"Authorized, intimate, and definitive, Ben Hogan: A Life isthe long-awaited biography of one of golf's greatest, mostenigmatic legends, narrated with the unique eloquence that has madeauthor James Dodson a critically acclaimed national bestseller. "One man is often credited with shaping the landscape of moderngolf. Ben Hogan was a short, trim, impeccably dressed Texan whosefierce work ethic, legendary steel nerves, and astonishing triumphover personal disaster earned him not only an army of adoring fans,but one of the finest careers in the history of the sport. Hogancaptured a record-tying four U.S. Opens, won five of six majortournaments in a single season, and inspired future generations ofprofessional golfers from Palmer to Norman to Woods. Yet for allhis brilliance, Ben Hogan was an enigma. He was an American herowhose personal life, inner motivation, and famed "secret" were thesource of great public mystery. As Hogan grew into a giant on thepro tour, the combination of his cool outward demeanor an

No one is better poised to write the biography of JamesHerriot than the son who worked alongside him in the Yorkshireveterinary practice when Herriot became an internationallybestselling author. Now, in this warm and poignant biography, JimWight ventures beyond his father's life as a veterinarian to revealthe man behind the stories--the private individual who refused toallow fame and wealth to interfere with his practice or his family.With access to all of his father's papers, correspondence,manu*s, and photographs--and intimate recollections of thefarmers, locals, and friends who populate the James Herriotbooks--only Jim Wight could write this definitive biography of theman who was not only his father but his best friend.

Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned by her insularNew Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by hermother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hidingher before they finally banish her altogether. After giving herbaby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the MiddleEast, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally herblood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life thatencircles her silenced and invisible grief. When he is twenty-one,her lost son finds her. Hall learns that he grew up in grittypoverty with an abusive father—in her own father's hometown. Theirreunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. Hall'sparents never ask for her forgiveness, yet as they age, she offersthem her love. What sets Without a Map apart is the way in whichloss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion intowisdom.

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island ofSri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat andintoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India,"Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of hisDutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and familymemoir by an exceptional writer.

Although his popularity is eclipsed by Rembrandt today, PeterPaul Rubens was revered by his contemporaries as the greatestpainter of his era, if not of all history. His undeniableartistic genius, bolstered by a modest disposition and a reputationas a man of tact and discretion, made him a favorite among monarchsand political leaders across Europe—and gave him the perfect coverfor the clandestine activities that shaped the landscape ofseventeenth-century politics. In Master of Shadows, Mark Lamster brilliantly recreates theculture, religious conflicts, and political intrigues of Rubens’stime, following the painter from Antwerp to London, Madrid, Paris,and Rome and providing an insightful exploration of Rubens’s art aswell as the private passions that influenced it.

The first complete, unvarnished history of Southern rock’slegendary and most popular band, from its members’ hardscrabbleboyhoods in Jacksonville, Florida and their rise to worldwide fameto the tragic plane crash that killed the founder and the band’srise again from the ashes. In the summer of 1964 Jacksonville, Florida teenager Ronnie VanZant and some of his friends hatched the idea of forming a band toplay covers of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds and thecountry and blues-rock music they had grown to love. Naming theirband after Leonard Skinner, the gym teacher at Robert E. Lee SeniorHigh School who constantly badgered the long-haired aspiringmusicians to get haircuts, they were soon playing gigs at parties,and bars throughout the South. During the next decade LynyrdSkynyrd grew into the most critically acclaimed and commerciallysuccessful of the rock bands to emerge from the South since theAllman Brothers. Their hits “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”became classics. The

In this extraordinary memoir, one of the best young writers inAmerica today transforms into a work of art the darkest passageimaginable in a young woman's life: an obsessive love affairbetween father and daughter that began when Kathryn Harrison,twenty years old, was reunited with a parent whose absence hadhaunted her youth. Exquisitely and hypnotically written, like a bold and terrifyingdream, The Kiss is breathtaking in its honesty and in the power andbeauty of its creation. A story both of taboo and of familycomplicity in breaking taboo, The Kiss is also about love -- aboutthe most primal of love triangles, the one that ensnares a childbetween mother and father. From the Hardcover edition.

How does he assess the information that is brought to him? Howdoes his personal or political philosophy, or a moral sense,sustain him? How does he draw inspiration from those around him?How does he deal with setbacks and disasters? In this brilliantclose-up look at Winston Churchill's leadership during the SecondWorld War, Gilbert gets to the heart of the trials and strugglesthat have confronted the world's most powerful leaders, even up tocurrent politicians such as George Bush and Tony Blair. Basing the book on his intimate knowledge of Churchill's privateand official papers, Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s officialbiographer, looks at the public figure and wartime propaganda, toreveal a very human, sensitive, and often tormented man, whonevertheless found the strength to lead his nation forward from thedarkest and most dangerous of times.

The epic life and times of one of the most important politicalfigures in our history. He was the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator andleader whose life mirrors the story of America from its foundinguntil the eve of the Civil War. Speaker of the House, senator,secretary of state, five-time presidential candidate, and idol tothe young Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is captured in full at lastin this rich and sweeping biography that vividly portrays all thedrama of his times. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler present Clay in his earlyyears as a precocious, witty, and optimistic Virginia boy, raisedon a farm, who at the age of twenty transformed himself frombumpkin to attorney—a shrewd and sincere defender of the ordinaryman who would be his eventual political base. The authors revealClay’s tumultuous career in Washington, one that transformed thecapital and the country. Nicknamed “the Western Star,” Clay becamethe youngest Speaker of the House shortly before the War of 1812and tran

Saucerful of Secrets is the first in-depth biography of thisvery private group. At the heart of the saga is Syd Barrett, thegroup's brilliant founder, whose public decline into shatteredincoherence--attributable in part to his marathon use of LSD--isone of the tragedies of rock history. The making of Dark Side ofthe Moon and Floyd's other great albums is recounted in detail, asare the mounting of "The Wall"? ? and the creation of the flyingpigs, crashing? ? planes, "Mr. Screen" and the other elements oftheir spectacular stage shows. The book also explores the manybattles between bass player/song writer Roger Waters and the restof the group, leading up to Water's acrimonious departure for asolo? ? career in 1984 and his unsuccessful attempt to disolve thegroup he had left behind. Saucerful of Secrets is an electrifying account of thisground-breaking, mind-bending group, covering every period of theircareer from? ? earliest days to latest recordings. It is full of? ?revealing information that will

In this extraordinary memoir, Nobel Prizewinning author GnterGrass remembers his early life, from his boyhood in a crampedtwo-room apartment in Danzig through the late 1950s, when The TinDrum was published. During the Second World War, Grass volunteeredfor the submarine corps at the age of fifteen but was rejected; twoyears later, in 1944, he was instead drafted into the Waffen-SS.Taken prisoner by American forces as he was recovering fromshrapnel wounds, he spent the final weeks of the war in an AmericanPOW camp. After the war, Grass resolved to become an artist andmoved with his first wife to Paris, where he began to write thenovel that would make him famous. Full of the bravado of youth, therubble of postwar Germany, the thrill of wild love affairs, and theexhilaration of Paris in the early fifties, Peeling the Onionwhichcaused great controversy when it was published in GermanyrevealsGrass at his most intimate.

Susan Loomis arrived in Paris twenty years ago with littlemore than a student loan and the contents of a suitcase to sustainher. But what began then as an apprenticeship at La Varenne Ecolede Cuisine evolved into a lifelong immersion in French cuisine andculture, culminating in permanent residency in 1994. "On Rue Tatin"chronicles her journey to an ancient little street in Louviers,one of Normandy's most picturesque towns. With lyrical prose andwry candor, Loomis recalls the miraculous restoration that she andher husband performed on the dilapidated convent they chose fortheir new residence. As its ochre and azure floor tiles emerged,challenges outside the dwelling mounted. From squatters to a surlypriest next door, along with a close-knit community wary ofoutsiders, Loomis tackled the social challenges head-on, throughpersistent dialogue-and baking. "On Rue Tatin "includes deliciousrecipes that evoke the essence of this region, such as Apple andThyme Tart, Duck Breast with Cider, and Braised Chicken i

In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recountsher extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to theworld stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977,she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused onthe empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa.Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personallosses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathaicontinued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and torestore democracy to her beloved country . Infused with herunique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai’s remarkable story ofcourage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspiregenerations to come.

MARVELOUS . . . BREATHTAKING. --The New York Times Book Review "MAILER SHINES . . . Explaining Kennedy's assassination throughthe flaws in Oswald's character has been attempted before, notablyby Gerald Posner in Case Closed and Don Delillo in Libra. Butneither handled Oswald with the kind of dexterity and literaryimagination that Mailer here supplies in great force. . . .Oswald's Tale weaves a story not only about Oswald or Kennedy'sdeath but about the culture surrounding the assassination, one thatremains replete with miscomprehensions, unraveled threads and lackof resolution: All of which makes Oswald's Tale more true-to-lifethan any fact-driven treatise could hope to be. . . . VintageMailer." --The Philadelphia Inquirer "FASCINATING . . . A MASTER STORYTELLER . . . Mailer gives us ourclearest, deepest view of Oswald yet. . . . Inside three pages youare utterly absorbed." --Detroit Free Press "MAILER AT HIS BEST . . . LIVELY AND CONVINCING . . .EXTREMELY LUCI

It is remarkable how infrequently, over a period of more thanfifty years, Alfred Hitchcock spoke about the legendary actresseshe directed–including Ingrid Bergman, Kim Novak, and Grace Kelly.But his leading ladies greatly enriched his films, and many of themachieved international stardom precisely because of their work forHitchcock. Rich with new material, anecdotes, andnever-before-told personal observations, this explosive portraitdetails Hitchcock’s outbursts of cruelty, the shocking humor, andthe odd amalgam of adoration and contempt that characterizedHitchcock’s obsessive relationships with women–and that also,paradoxically, fed his genius.

A chance encounter in Spain in 1959 brought young Irishreporter Valerie Danby-Smith face to face with Ernest Hemingway.The interview was awkward and brief, but before it ended somethinghad clicked into place. For the next two years, Valerie devoted herlife to Hemingway and his wife, Mary, traveling with them throughbeloved old haunts in Spain and France and living with them duringthe tumultuous final months in Cuba. In name a personal secretary,but in reality a confidante and sharer of the great man’s secretsand sorrows, Valerie literally came of age in the company of one ofthe greatest literary lions of the twentieth century. Five years after his death, Valerie became a Hemingway herselfwhen she married the writer’s estranged son Gregory. Now, at last,she tells the story of the incredible years she spent with thisextravagantly talented and tragically doomed family. In prose of brilliant clarity and stinging candor, Valerie evokesthe magic and the pathos of Papa Hemingway

Offers a remarkable perspective on how a brutal mobster couldlead a sweet home life as a suburban dad.” —New York Times “One of the most searing volumes ever written about the mob .. . An] unforgettable memoir.” —Publishers Weekly “Admirers of Mafia fiction . . . should enjoy DeMeo’s attemptto strip off the gaudy veneer of what is, what was, and [what]always will be very dirty business.” —Detroit Free Press

In the spring of 1884 Ulysses S. Grant heeded the advice of MarkTwain and finally agreed to write his memoirs. Little did Grant orTwain realize that this seemingly straightforward decision wouldprofoundly alter not only both their lives but the course ofAmerican literature. Over the next fifteen months, as the two menbecame close friends and intimate collaborators, Grant racedagainst the spread of cancer to compose a triumphant account of hislife and times—while Twain struggled to complete and publish hisgreatest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Inthis deeply moving and meticulously researched book, veteran writerMark Perry reconstructs the heady months when Grant and Twaininspired and cajoled each other to create two quintessentiallyAmerican masterpieces. In a bold and colorful narrative, Perry recounts the early careersof these two giants, traces their quest for fame and elusivefortunes, and then follows the series of events that brought themtogether as friends. The reason Grant let Twain talk