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.

An instinctive and magnificent storyteller, Somerset Maughamwas one of the most popular and successful writers of his time. Hepublished seventy-eight books -- including the undisputed classicsOf Human Bondage and The Razor’s Edge -- which sold over 40 millioncopies in his lifetime. Born in Paris to sophisticated parents, Willie Maugham wasorphaned at the age of ten and brought up in a small Englishcoastal town by narrow-minded relatives. He was trained as adoctor, but never practiced medicine. His novel Ashenden, based onhis own espionage for Britain in World War I, influenced writersfrom Eric Ambler to John le Carr?. After a failed affair with anactress, he married another man’s mistress, but reserved hisgreatest love for a man who shared his life for nearly thirtyyears. He traveled the world and spoke several languages. Despite adebilitating stutter, and an acerbic and formal manner, heentertained literary celebrities and royalty at his villa in thesouth of France. He made a fortune from hi

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a gifted animal scientist who hasdesigned one third of all the livestock-handling facilities in theUnited States. She also lectures widely on autism—because TempleGrandin is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences theworld in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us. In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from thecountry of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of ascientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country isexperienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach itsboundaries to function in the outside world. What emerges in Thinking in Pictures is the document of an extraordinaryhuman being, one who, in gracefully and lucidly bridging the gulfbetween her condition and our own, sheds light on the riddle of ourcommon identity.

In a brilliant combination of biography, literary criticism,and history, The Bronté Myth shows how Charlotte, Emily, and AnneBronté became cultural icons whose ever-changing reputationsreflected the obsessions of various eras. When literary London learned that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heightshad been written by young rural spinsters, the Brontés instantlybecame as famous as their shockingly passionate books. Soon aftertheir deaths, their first biographer spun the sisters into apicturesque myth of family tragedies and Yorkshire moors. Eversince, these enigmatic figures have tempted generations ofreaders–Victorian, Freudian, feminist–to reinterpret them, castingthem as everything from domestic saints to sex-starved hysterics.In her bewitching “metabiography,” Lucasta Miller follows thetwists and turns of the phenomenon of Bront-mania and rescues thesethree fiercely original geniuses from the distortions oflegend.

Thirty years ago, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt won both thePulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. A collector’s item inits original edition, it has never been out of print as apaperback. This classic book is now reissued in hardcover, alongwith Theodore Rex, to coincide with the publication of ColonelRoosevelt, the third and concluding volume of Edmund Morris’sdefinitive trilogy on the life of the twenty-sixth President. Although Theodore Rex fully recounts TR’s years in the WhiteHouse (1901–1909), The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt begins with abrilliant Prologue describing the President at the apex of hisinternational prestige. That was on New Year’s Day, 1907, when TR,who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize, threw open the doors of theWhite House to the American people and shook 8,150 hands, more thanany man before him. Morris re-creates the reception with suchauthentic detail that the reader gets almost as vivid an impressionof TR as those who attended. One visitor remarked

Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor with the legendary blueeyes, achieved superstar status by playing charismatic renegades,broken heroes, and winsome antiheroes in such revered films as TheHustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, TheVerdict, The Color of Money, and Nobody’s Fool. But Newman was alsoan oddity in Hollywood: the rare box-office titan who cared aboutthe craft of acting, the sexy leading man known for the stayingpower of his marriage, and the humble celebrity who madephilanthropy his calling card long before it was cool. The son of a successful entrepreneur, Newman grew up in aprosperous Cleveland suburb. Despite fears that he would fail tolive up to his father’s expectations, Newman bypassed the familysporting goods business to pursue an acting career. Afterstruggling as a theater and television actor, Newman saw his starrise in a tragic twist of fate, landing the role of boxer RockyGraziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me when James Dean was killedin a car a

Here is a multidimensional playland of ideas from the world'smost eccentric Nobel-Prize winning scientist. Kary Mullis islegendary for his invention of PCR, which redefined the world ofDNA, genetics, and forensic science. He is also a surfer, a veteranof Berkeley in the sixties, and perhaps the only Nobel laureate todescribe a possible encounter with aliens. A scientist of boundlesscuriosity, he refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhandor hearsay evidence, and always looks for the "money trail" whenscientists make announcements.

“I had prepared a life plan that included ten years ofwandering, later years studying medicine. . . . All that's in thepast, the only thing that's clear is that the ten years ofwandering might grow longer . . . but it will now be of an entirelydifferent type from the one I dreamed of, and when I arrive in anew country it will not be to go to museums and look at ruins,because that still interests me, but also to join the struggle ofthe people.” – Che Guevara, in a letter to his mother, 1956 Assembled from two separate books written by Che's father, this isa vivid and intimate account of the formative years of an icon.Ernesto Guevara Lynch describes the people and personal events thatshaped the development of his son's revolutionary worldview, fromhis childhood in a bourgeois Argentinian home to the moment hejoined Castro to train for the invasion of Cuba in 1956. It alsoincludes, available for the first time in the United States, Che'sdiary of his trip around Northern Argentina in 1950. YoungChe is

A PRESIDENTIAL DYNASTY. AN ARAB TERRORIST ATTACK. DEMOCRACYUNDER SIEGE. Mario Puzo envisioned it all in his eerily prescient1991 novel, The Fourth K. President Francis Xavier Kennedy is elected to office, in largepart, thanks to the legacy of his forebears–good looks, privilege,wealth–and is the very embodiment of youthful optimism. Too soon,however, he is beaten down by the political process and, disabusedof his ideals, he becomes a leader totally unlike what he has beenbefore. When his daughter becomes a pawn in a brutal terrorist plot,Kennedy, who has obsessively kept alive the memory of his uncles’assassinations, activates all his power to retaliate in a series ofviolent measures. As the explosive events unfold, the world andthose closest to him look on with both awe and horror.

A writer renowned for his insight into the mysteries of the bodynow gives us a lambent and profoundly moving book about themysteries of family. At its center lies Sherwin Nuland’sRembrandtesque portrait of his father, Meyer Nudelman, a Jewishgarment worker who came to America in the early years of the lastcentury but remained an eternal outsider. Awkward in speech andmovement, broken by the premature deaths of a wife and child, Meyerruled his youngest son with a regime of rage, dependency, andhelpless love that outlasted his death. In evoking their relationship, Nuland also summons up the warmthand claustrophobia of a vanished immigrant New York, a world thatimpelled its children toward success yet made them feel liketraitors for leaving it behind. Full of feeling and unwaveringobservation, Lost in America deserves a place alongside suchclassics as Patrimony and Call It Sleep .

V. S. Naipaul is perhaps the most famous émigré writer sinceVladimir Nabokov, and though he always spoke and wrote English, hisself-imposed exile to England from his native Trinidad representeda cultural shift as profound as learning to think in anotherlanguage. In this moving, novel-like correspondence, we witness thegreat writer’s early transformation from an expatriate adrift to aworld-renowned man of letters. The letters collected here illuminate with unalloyed candor therelationship between a sacrificing father and his determined son asthey encourage each other to persevere with their writing. Forthough his father’s literary aspirations would go unrealized,Naipaul’s triumphant career would ultimately vindicate his belovedmentor’s legacy.

She was the first woman to inherit the throneof England, a key player in one of Britain’s stormiest eras, and aleader whose unwavering faith and swift retribution earned her thenickname “Bloody Mary.” Now, in this impassioned and absorbingdebut, historian Anna Whitelock offers a modern perspective on MaryTudor and sets the record straight once and for all on one ofhistory’s most compelling and maligned rulers. Though often overshadowed by her long-reigning sister, ElizabethI, Mary lived a life full of defiance, despair, and triumph. Bornthe daughter of the notorious King Henry VIII and the SpanishKatherine of Aragon, young Mary was a princess in every sense ofthe word—schooled in regal customs, educated by the best scholars,coveted by European royalty, and betrothed before she had reachedthe age of three. Yet in a decade’s time, in the wake of KingHenry’s break with the pope, she was declared a bastard,disinherited, and demoted from “princess” to “lady.” Ever herdeeply devout

“Number One” was a phrase my father—and, for that matter, mymother—repeated time and time again. It was a phrase spoken by myparents’ friends and by their friends’ children. Whenever adultsdiscussed the great Chinese painters and sculptors from the ancientdynasties, there was always a single artist named as Number One.There was the Number One leader of a manufacturing plant, theNumber One worker, the Number One scientist, the Number One carmechanic. In the culture of my childhood, being best waseverything. It was the goal that drove us, the motivation that gavelife meaning. And if, by chance or fate or the blessings of thegenerous universe, you were a child in whom talent was evident,Number One became your mantra. It became mine. I never begged myparents to take off the pressure. I accepted it; I even enjoyed it.It was a game, this contest among aspiring pianists, and although Imay have been shy, I was bold, even at age five, when faced with afield of rivals. Born in China to parents whose mu

Based on ten years' astonishing new research, here is thethrilling story of how a charismatic, dangerous boy became astudent priest, romantic poet, gangster mastermind, prolific lover,murderous revolutionary, and the merciless politician who shapedthe Soviet Empire in his own brutal image: How Stalin becameStalin.

Book De*ion Here, firmly rooted in her own social setting for the first time,is the real Jane Austen--the shy woman willing to challengeconvention, the woman of no pretensions who nevertheless calledherself "formidable," a woman who could be frivolous and yet sufferfrom black depressions, who showed unfailing loyalty and, in theconduct of her own life, unfailing bravery. In an act ofunderstanding and brilliant synthesis, Claire Tomalin reveals JaneAusten with a clarity never before achieved, one which makes uslook upon her novels with fresh and even greater admiration. The world she wrote about--that place of civility and reassuringstability--was never quite her own. As Tomalin shows, Jane Austen'sfamily existed on the very fringe of the world she described in herfiction, struggling to get ahead with little money and no land inthe competitive society of Georgian England, sometimes succeedingbut often failing with painful consequences. New research in familypapers has yielded a rich, tragico

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of oneof the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamukwas born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartmentbuilding where his mother first held him in her arms. His portraitof his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory andthe melancholy–or h ü z ü n– that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid theruins of a lost empire. With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappyparents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking theBosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to thewriters and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape hisconsciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ BuenosAires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of placeand sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

Suzanne Shea has always loved a good book-and she's writtenfive of them, all acclaimed. In the course of her ten-year career,she's done a good bit of touring, including readings and drop-insat literally hundreds of bookstores. She never visited one thatwasn't memorable. Two years ago, while recovering from radiation therapy, Sheaheard from a friend who was looking for help at her bookstore. Sheavolunteered, seeing it as nothing more than a way to get out of herpajamas and back into the world. But over next twelve months, fromSt. Patrick's Day through Poetry Month, graduation/Father'sDay/summer reading/Christmas and back again to those shamrockdisplays, Shea lived and breathed books in a place she sayssells'ideas, stories, encouragement, answers, solace, validation,the basic ammunition for daily life.' Her work was brieflyinterrupted by an author tour that took her to other greatbookstores. De*ions of these and her memories of book-linedrooms reaching all the way back to childhood visits to theBoo

“Christopher Hogwood came home on my lap in a shoebox. He wasa creature who would prove in many ways to be more human than Iam.” –from The Good Good Pig A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own amongwild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always feltmore comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladlyopened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away fromnourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inklingthat this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not onlysurvive but flourish–and she soon found herself engaged with hersmall-town community in ways she had never dreamed possible.Unexpectedly, Christopher provided this peripatetic traveler withsomething she had sought all her life: an anchor (eventuallyweighing 750 pounds) to family and home. The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all hisglory, from his inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural NewHampshire, where his boundless zest for life a

Who are the pivotal figures in American history, the men andwomen who have helped shape us as a people and have influenced howwe perceive ourselves as Americans? In this companion to hispopular 1001 Events That Made America, Alan Axelrod looks into allareas of our collective past and highlights the famous as well asthe infamous, the virtuous as well as the notorious, from thenation’s earliest days to the present. Serving up history in lively, accessible bites, the book presentsa Who’s Who in American politics, arts, science, business,religion, and pop culture, along with concise explanations of eachfigure’s historical significance. Featured personalities range fromJesse James to Al Capone, Harriet Beecher Stowe to Betty Friedan,George Washington to George W. Bush, Harriet Tubman to MartinLuther King, Jr., Stephen Foster to Elvis, John L. Sullivan toMuhammad Ali, Edwin Booth to Marlon Brando, Washington Irving toThomas Pynchon, and John Jacob Astor to Bill Gates. Packed with informatio

Fully documented and highly detailed, this is the biographythat Sinatra tried but failed to stop. A runaway #1 bestseller. HC:Bantam. (Nonfiction)

The only thing the writers in this book have in common is thatthey've exchanged sex for money. They're PhDs and dropouts, soccermoms and jailbirds, $2,500-a-night call girls and $10 crack hos,and everything in between. This anthology lends a voice to anunderrepresented population that is simultaneously reviled andworshipped. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys is a collection of shortmemoirs, rants, confessions, nightmares, journalism, and poetrycovering life, love, work, family, and yes, sex. The editors gatherpieces from the world of industrial sex, including contributionsfrom art-porn priestess Dr. Annie Sprinkle, best-selling memoiristDavid Henry Sterry (Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man forRent), sex activist and musical diva Candye Kane, women and menright off the streets, girls participating in the first-everNational Summit of Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, and RuthMorgan Thomas, one of the organizers of the European Sex Work,Human Rights, and Migration Conference. Se

Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award, Wherethe Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs gathers togetherWallace Stegner’s most important and memorable writings on theAmerican West: its landscapes, diverse history, and shiftingidentity; its beauty, fragility, and power. With subjects rangingfrom the writer’s own “migrant childhood” to the need to protectwhat remains of the great western wilderness (which Stegner dubs“the geography of hope”) to poignant profiles of western writerssuch as John Steinbeck and Norman Maclean, this collection is ariveting testament to the power of place. At the same time itcommunicates vividly the sensibility and range of this most giftedof American writers, historians, and environmentalists.

A secret life, A tragic death, A towering legacy. 有人这样形容他：“他英年早逝却成就颇丰，他的研究让他青史留名”。他就是阿兰?图灵，二十世纪的一位伟大人物。然而，在70年代之前，他的名字还不为人知，因为他在破译德国英格玛(enigma)密码机方面的贡献还没有被公开。图灵的故事令人着迷，而在他自杀之后，他的名气不降反升，因为人们更加深刻地认识到他对逻辑学、数学、计算、人工智能以及计算生物学所做出的贡献。为纪念图灵诞辰一百周年，特将图灵母亲所著的传记再版。数学家马丁?戴维斯为该版重新作序，另外此版还附上了首次公布的图灵哥哥的回忆录。但哥哥的回忆录和图灵母亲的传记之间的差别透露出了矛盾，也可以使读者从新的角度了解图灵本人，以及图灵和家人的关系。 阿兰?图灵传奇的一生虽引人注意，但了解他生平详情的人并不多。他的母

Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguezwent to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid tothis war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–asdoctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practicalthan her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two fromMichigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon foundshe had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her professionbecame known she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate fora good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proudtradition of running their own beauty salons. Thus an idea wasborn. With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the KabulBeauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well meaning butsometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers,overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challengesof a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her studentsto become their families’ breadwinners