George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision of "Negative Utopia" is timelier than ever-and its warnings more powerful.

"This man will either go insane or leave us all far behind," prophesied the great Impressionist Camille Pissarro. The man was Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), a vicar's son born at Groot-Zundert near Breda in Holland, who at that time was struggling to find buyers for his paintings. Van Gogh did indeed go at least to the brink of insanity. And he has long been recognised as one of the greatest modern artists.Van Gogh, who followed a variety of professions before becoming an artist, was a solitary, despairing and self-destructive man his whole life long. His truest friend was his brother Theo, who supported him unstintingly throughout and followed him to the grave just six months later.This richly illustrated study by two experts on van Gogh follows the artist from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his home parts, through the bright and colourful paintings he did in Paris, to the work of his final years under a southern sun in Arles, where he at last found

Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, and important book. THE NEW YORK TIMES If there was any one man who articulated the anger, the struggle,and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man wasMalcolm X. His AUTOBIOGRAPHY is the result of a uniquecollaboration between Alex Haley and Malcolm X, whose voice andphilosophy resonate from every page, just as his experience and hisintelligence continue to speak to millions.

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.

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.

Far more than a superb memoir about the highest levels ofprofessional tennis, Open is the engrossing story of a remarkablelife. Andre Agassi had his life mapped out for him before he left thecrib. Groomed to be a tennis champion by his moody and demandingfather, by the age of twenty-two Agassi had won the first of hiseight grand slams and achieved wealth, celebrity, and the game’shighest honors. But as he reveals in this searching autobiography,off the court he was often unhappy and confused, unfulfilled by hisgreat achievements in a sport he had come to resent. Agassi writescandidly about his early success and his uncomfortable relationshipwith fame, his marriage to Brooke Shields, his growing interest inphilanthropy, and—described in haunting, point-by-point detail—thehighs and lows of his celebrated career.

When Newton was not yet twenty-five years old, he formulatedcalculus, hit upon the idea of gravity, and discovered that whitelight was made up of all the colors of the spectrum. By 1678,Newton designed a telescope to study the movement of the planetsand published Principia, a milestone in the history of science,which set forth his famous laws of motion and universalgravitation. Newton’s long-time research on calculus, finally madepublic in 1704, triggered a heated controversy as Europeanscientists accused him of plagiarizing the work of the Germanscientist Gottfried Leibniz. In this third volume in the acclaimed Ackroyd’s Brief Livesseries, bestselling author Peter Ackroyd provides an engagingportrait of Isaac Newton, illuminating what we think we know abouthim and describing his seminal contributions to science andmathematics. A man of wide and eclectic interests, Newton blurred theborders between natural philosophy and speculation: he was aspassionate about astrology as astronomy an

The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst unexpectedly onto the eighteenth-century literary scene as a provocateur whose works electrified readers. An autodidact who had not written anything of significance by age thirty, Rousseau seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of the most influential thinkers in history. Yet the power of his ideas is felt to this day in our political and social lives. In a masterly and definitive biography, Leo Damrosch traces the extraordinary life of Rousseau with novelistic verve. He presents Rousseau's books -- The Social Contract, one of the greatest works on political theory; Emile, a groundbreaking treatise on education; and the Confessions, which created the genre of introspective autobiography -- as works uncannily alive and provocative even today. Jean-Jacques Rousseau offers a vivid portrait of the visionary’s tumultuous life.

The definitive story of one of the greatest dynasties inbaseball history, Joe Torre's New York Yankees. When Joe Torre took over as manager of the Yankees in 1996, theyhad not won a World Series title in eighteen years. In that timeseventeen others had tried to take the helm of America’s mostfamous baseball team. Each one was fired by George Steinbrenner.After twelve triumphant seasons—with twelve straight playoffappearances, six pennants, and four World Series titles—Torre leftthe Yankees as the most beloved manager in baseball. But dealingwith players like Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera,Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson is what managing is all about.Here, for the first time, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci take readersinside the dugout, the clubhouse, and the front office, showingwhat it took to keep the Yankees on top of the baseball world.

Let It Blurt is the raucous and righteous biography of LesterBangs (1949-82)--the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romanticvisionary of rock criticism. No writer on rock 'n' roll ever livedharder or wrote better--more passionately, more compellingly, morepenetratingly. He lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, guzzling boozeand Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that eruptedfrom the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice.Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher,louder, more electric, and more alive, in the course of which hecharted and defined the aesthetics of heavy metal and punk. He wastreated as a peer by such brash visionaries as Lou Reed, PattiSmith, Richard Hell, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Debbie Harry,and other luminaries. Let It Blurt is a scrupulously researched account of LesterBangs's fascinating (if often tawdry and unappetizing) life story,as well as a window on rock criticism and rock culture in theirmost turbulent and creative years

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

I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!) is Stephen Colbert's attempt to wedge his brain between hardback covers. In plain conversational language, not to mention the occasional grunt and/or whistle, Stephen explains his take on the most pressing concerns of our culture: Faith, Family, Politics...Hygiene.

A rich evocation of Nabokov's life and times, even as it offersincisive insights into his major works, including LOLITA, PNIN,DESPAIR, THE GIFT and others.

From October to December of 1888, Paul Gauguin shared a yellowhouse in the south of France with Vincent van Gogh. They were theodd couple of the art world -- one calm, the other volatile -- andthe denouement of their living arrangement was explosive. Makinguse of new evidence and Van Goghs voluminous correspondence, MartinGayford describes not only how these two hallowed artists paintedand exchanged ideas, but also the texture of their everyday lives.Gayford also makes a persuasive analysis of Van Goghs mentalillness -- the probable bipolar affliction that led him to commitsuicide at the age of thirty-seven. The Yellow House is a singularbiographical work, as dramatic and vibrant as the work of thesebrilliant artists.

Michael J. Neufeld, curator and space historian at theSmithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, delivers a brilliantlynuanced biography of Wernher von Braun. Chief rocket engineer of the Third Reich and one of the fathersof the U.S. space program, Wernher von Braun is a source ofconsistent fascination. Glorified as a visionary and vilified as awar criminal, he was a man of profound moral complexities, whoseintelligence and charisma were coupled with an enormous and, somewould say, blinding ambition. Based on new sources, Neufeld'sbiography delivers a meticulously researched and authoritativeportrait of the creator of the V-2 rocket and his times, detailinghow he was a man caught between morality and progress, between hisdreams of the heavens and the earthbound realities of his life.

Gandhi's non-violent struggles against racism, violence, andcolonialism in South Africa and India had brought him to such alevel of notoriety, adulation that when asked to write anautobiography midway through his career, he took it as anopportunity to explain himself. He feared the enthusiasm for hisideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding of his quest fortruth rooted in devotion to God. His attempts to get closer to thisdivine power led him to seek purity through simple living, dietarypractices, celibacy, and a life without violence. This is not astraightforward narrative biography, in The Story of My Experimentswith Truth, Gandhi offers his life story as a reference for thosewho would follow in his footsteps.

The long-awaited autobiography of the guitarist,songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones.Ladies and gentlemen: Keith Richards. With The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created thesongs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock androll life. Now, at last, the man himself tells his story of life in thecrossfire hurricane. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and MuddyWaters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jaggerand Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones's first fame and the notoriousdrug busts that led to his enduring image as an outlaw folk hero.Creating immortal riffs like the ones in "Jumping Jack Flash" and"Honky Tonk Women." His relationship with Anita Pallenberg and thedeath of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of theU.S., isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen.Estrangement from Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Marriage,family, solo albums and Xpensive Winos, and the road that goes onforever. With his trademark di

Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a complex, sympatheticportrait that will forever change the way we view the most enduringicon of America sexuality. To those who think they have heard allthere is to hear about Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's booktells a brand-new tale of sexual, psychological, and politicalintrigue of the highest order. Told for the first time in all itscomplexity, this is a compelling portrait of a woman at the centerof a drama with immensely high stakes, a drama in which the otherplayers are some of the most fascinating characters from the worldsof movies, theater, and politics. It is a book that shines a brightlight on one of the most tumultuous, frightening, and excitingperiods in American culture. Basing her research on new interviews and on thousands of primarydocuments--including revealing letters by Arthur Miller, EliaKazan, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, DarrylZanuck, Marilyn's psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson, and manyothers--Leaming has rec

From one of the most important intellectuals of our time comesan extraordinary story of exile and a celebration of anirrecoverable past. A fatal medical diagnosis in 1991 convincedEdward Said that he should leave a record of where he was born andspent his childhood, and so with this memoir he rediscovers thelost Arab world of his early years in Palestine, Lebanon, andEgypt. Said writes withgreat passion and wit about his family and his friends from hisbirthplace in Jerusalem, schools in Cairo, and summers in themountains above Beirut, to boarding school and college in theUnited States, revealing an unimaginable world of rich, colorfulcharacters and exotic eastern landscapes. Underscoring all is theconfusion of identity the young Said experienced as he came toterms with the dissonance of being an American citizen, a Christianand a Palestinian, and, ultimately, an outsider. Richly detailed,moving, often profound, Out of Place depicts a young man'scoming of age and the genesis of a great modern think

“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

A selection of the remarkable letters of Emily Dickinson in anelegant Pocket Poet edition. The same inimitable voice and dazzling insights that make EmilyDickinson’s poems immortal can be found in the whimsical, humorous,and often deeply moving letters she wrote to her family and friendsthroughout her life. The selection of letters presented hereprovides a fuller picture of the eccentric recluse of legend,showing how immersed in life she was: we see her tending hergarden; baking bread; marking the marriages, births, and deaths ofthose she loved; reaching out for intellectual companionship; andconfessing her personal joys and sorrows. These letters, invaluablefor the light they shed on their author, are, as well, a purepleasure to read.

In The Perfect Hour, biographer James L. W. West III reveals thenever-before told story of the romance between F. Scott Fitzgeraldand his first love, Ginevra King. They met in January 1915, whenScott was nineteen, a Princeton student, and sixteen-year-oldGinevra, socially poised and confident, was a sophomore at WestoverSchool. Their romance flourished in heartfelt letters and quicklyran its course–but Scott never forgot it. Ginevra became theinspiration for Isabelle Borgé in This Side of Paradise and themodel for Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Scott also wroteshort stories inspired by her–including “Babes in the Woods” and“Winter Dreams,” which, along with Ginevra’s own story featuringScott are reprinted in this volume. With access to Ginevra’spersonal diary, love letters, photographs, and Scott’s ownscrapbook, West tells the beguiling story of youthful passion thatshaped Scott Fitzgerald’s life as a writer. For Scott and Ginevra, “the perfect hour” was private code for afleeti

Adored by many, loathed by some, General George S. Patton,Jr., was one of the most brilliant military strategists in history.War As I Knew It is the personal and candid account of hiscelebrated, relentless crusade across western Europe during WorldWar II. First published in 1947, this absorbing narrative draws onPatton's vivid memories of battle and his detailed diaries, fromthe moment the Third Army exploded onto the Brittany Peninsula tothe final Allied casualty report. The result is not only agrueling, human account of daily combat and heroic feats -including a riveting look at the Battle of the Bulge - but avaluable chronicle of the strategies and fiery personality of alegendary warrior. Patton's letters from earlier military campaignsin North Africa and Sicily, complemented by a powerfulretrospective of his guiding philosophies, further reveal a man ofuncompromising will and uncommon character, which made "Georgie" ahousehold name in mid-century America. With a new introduction.