From the author of the best-selling biography Woody Allen—themost informative, revealing, and entertaining conversations fromhis thirty-six years of interviewing the great comedian andfilmmaker. For more than three decades, Woody Allen has been talkingregularly and candidly with Eric Lax, and has given him singularand unfettered access to his film sets, his editing room, and histhoughts and observations. In discussions that begin in 1971 andcontinue into 2007, Allen discusses every facet of moviemakingthrough the prism of his own films and the work of directors headmires. In doing so, he reveals an artist’s development over thecourse of his career to date, from joke writer to standup comedianto world-acclaimed filmmaker. Woody talks about the seeds of his ideas and the writing of hisscreenplays; about casting and acting, shooting and directing,editing and scoring. He tells how he reworks screenplays even whilefilming them. He describes the problems he has had casting Ameri

Originally published in six volumes, Sandburgs Abraham Lincolnwas called the greatest historical biography of our generation.Sandburg distilled this work into one volume that became thedefinitive life of Lincoln. Index; photographs.

Here is the most important autobiography from RenaissanceItaly and one of the most spirited and colorful from any time orplace, in a translation widely recognized as the most faithful tothe energy and spirit of the original. Benvenuto Cellini was both a beloved artist in sixteenth-centuryFlorence and a passionate and temperamental man of action who wascapable of brawling, theft, and murder. He counted popes,cardinals, kings, and dukes among his patrons and was the adoringfriend of—as he described them—the “divine” Michelangelo and the“marvelous” Titian, but was as well known for his violent feuds. Atage twenty-seven he helped defend the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome,and his account of his imprisonment there (under a mad castellanwho thought he was a bat), his escape, recapture, and confinementin “a cell of tarantulas and venomous worms” is an adventure equalto any other in fact or fiction. But it is only one in a long lifelived on a grand scale. Cellini’s autobiography is n

From Hermione Lee, the internationally acclaimed, award-winningbiographer of Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather , comesa superb reexamination of one of the most famous American women ofletters. Delving into heretofore untapped sources, Lee does away with theimage of the snobbish bluestocking and gives us a new EdithWharton-tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as herfiction. Born into a wealthy family, Wharton left America as anadult and eventually chose to create a life in France. Her renownednovels and stories have become classics of American literature, butas Lee shows, Wharton's own life, filled with success and scandal,was as intriguing as those of her heroines. Bridging two centuriesand two very different sensibilities, Wharton here comes to life inthe skillful hands of one of the great literary biographers of ourtime.

A highly original, stirring book on Mahatma Gandhi that deepensour sense of his achievements and disappointments—his success inseizing India’s imagination and shaping its independence struggleas a mass movement, his recognition late in life that few of hisfollowers paid more than lip service to his ambitious goals ofsocial justice for the country’s minorities, outcasts, and ruralpoor. Pulitzer Prize–winner Joseph Lelyveld shows invivid, unmatched detail how Gandhi’s sense of mission, socialvalues, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance were shaped onanother subcontinent—during two decades in South Africa—and thentested by an India that quickly learned to revere him as a Mahatma,or “Great Soul,” while following him only a small part of the wayto the social transformation he envisioned. The man himself emergesas one of history’s most remarkable self-creations, a prosperouslawyer who became an ascetic in a loincloth wholly dedicated topolitical and social action. Lelyveld leads us step-

When twentysomething reporter Miranda Kennedy leaves herjob in New York City and travels to India with no employmentprospects, she longs to immerse herself in the turmoil andexcitement of a rapidly developing country. What she quickly learnsin Delhi about renting an apartment as a single woman—it’s next toimpossible—and the proper way for women in India to ridescooters—perched sideways—are early signs that life here is lessWesternized than she’d counted on. Living in Delhi for more than five years, and finding acity pulsing with possibility and hope, Kennedy experiencesfriendships, love affairs, and losses that open a window onto theopaque world of Indian politics and culture—and alter her ownattitudes about everything from food and clothes to marriage andfamily. Along the way, Kennedy is drawn into the lives of severalIndian women, including her charismatic friend Geeta—aself-described “modern girl” who attempts to squeeze herself intothe traditional role of wife and mother; R

Michael Jackson: The Making of "Thriller" is an illustratedtribute to the King of Pop and his groundbreaking music video, withnever-before-seen photos of its creation. The book features over200 exclusive, behind-the-scenes photographs of the artist on setduring the 1983 production of the Grammy award winning videodirected by John Landis. Considered to be the most successful project of all time,"Thriller" is beloved the world over, inspiring imitation and acult-like following of millions of fans. Documenting the creationof the most popular and iconic music video of all time, this bookcelebrates the artist and his music at the top of his career. Famed photographer Douglas Kirkland and journalist Nancy Griffinwere the only members of the media allowed on the set of the video.The resulting photos capture Jackson both in high performance modeand relaxing on the set and depict his transformation into thecharacters in the video as well capturing the public and privatefaces of Michael Jackson.

The first account—prodigiously researched, richly detailed—ofthe last remarkable twenty-five years of the life and art of one ofAmerica’s greatest and most beloved musical icons. Much has been written about Louis Armstrong, but most of itfocuses on the early and middle stages of his long career. Now,Ricky Riccardi—jazz scholar and musician—takes an in-depth look atthe years in which Armstrong was often dismissed as a buffoon?ish,if popular, entertainer, and shows us instead the inventiveness anddepth of expression that his music evinced during this time. These are the years (from after World War II until his death in1971) when Armstrong entertained crowds around the world andrecorded his highest-charting hits, including “Mack the Knife” and“Hello, Dolly”; years when he collaborated with, among others, EllaFitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Dave Brubeck; when he recorded withstrings and big bands, and, of course, with the All-Stars, hisprimary performing ensemble for more than