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 majestic literary biography, a truly new, surprisingly freshportrait. -- Newsday A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice National Book Critics Circle Award finalist A biography wholly worthy of the brilliant woman it chronicles. .. . It rediscovers Virginia Woolf afresh." --The Philadelphia Inquirer While Virginia Woolf--one of our century's most brilliant andmercurial writers--has had no shortage of biographers, none hasseemed as naturally suited to the task as Hermione Lee. Subscribingto Virginia Woolf's own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness ofidentity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude ofperspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer andthe woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictionsintact. Such issues as sexual abuse, mental illness, and suicideare brought into balance with the immensity of her literaryachievement, her heroic commitment to her work, her generosity andwit, and her sanity and strength. It

In a book that is both biography and the most exciting form ofhistory, here are eighteen years in the life of a man, AlbertEinstein, and a city, Berlin, that were in many ways the definingyears of the twentieth century. Einstein in Berlin In the spring of 1913 two of the giants of modern sciencetraveled to Zurich. Their mission: to offer the most prestigiousposition in the very center of European scientific life to a manwho had just six years before been a mere patent clerk. AlbertEinstein accepted, arriving in Berlin in March 1914 to take up hisnew post. In December 1932 he left Berlin forever. “Take a goodlook,” he said to his wife as they walked away from their house.“You will never see it again.” In between, Einstein’s Berlin years capture in microcosm theodyssey of the twentieth century. It is a century that opens withextravagant hopes--and climaxes in unparalleled calamity. These aretumultuous times, seen through the life of one man who is at oncewitness to and architect of his day--and

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

Bestselling author James Kaplan redefines Frank Sinatra in atriumphant new biography that includes many rarely seenphotographs. Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twenti?ethcentury—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notori?ous in equalmeasure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remainedan enigma. As Bob Spitz did with the Beatles, Tina Brown for Diana,and Peter Guralnick for Elvis, James Kaplan goes behind the legendand hype to bring alive a force that changed popular culture infundamental ways. Sinatra endowed the songs he sang with the explosive conflict ofhis own personality. He also made the very act of listening to popmusic a more personal experience than it had ever been. In Frank:The Voice, Kaplan reveals how he did it, bringing deeper insightthan ever before to the complex psyche and tur?bulent life behindthat incomparable vocal instrument. We relive the years 1915 to1954 in glistening detail, experiencing as if for the first timeSinatra’s journey

There has never been a golfer to rival Arnold Palmer. To thelegions of golf fans around the world, Palmer is a charismatichero, the winner of sixty-one tournaments on the PGA Tour and stillgoing strong on the Senior PGA Tour. But behind the legend, thereis the private Palmer--a man of wit, compassion, loyalty, and truegrit in the face of personal adversity. Writing with the humor and candor that are as much his trademarkas his unique golf swing, Palmer narrates the deeply moving storyof his life both on and off the links. He recounts the lovingrelationship he shared with his father, "Deacon" Palmer, the coursesuperintendent and head professional at the Latrobe Country Clubwhere young Arnie developed his game, his friendships and rivalrieswith golf greats, his enduringly happy marriage with Winnie, hislegendary charges to triumph and titanic disasters, and his valiantbattle against cancer and remarkable recovery. Arnold Palmer has lived one of the great sporting lives of thetwentieth century

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

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

I loved being called Deana Martin. Even when I was very small.Dad was such a positive influence on people’s lives that to be soclosely associated with him was always a blessing. People can’thelp but smile when they think of my father, which has to be thegreatest legacy of all. When people hear my name for the firsttime, they usually ask the same question: “Any relation?” “Yes,” Ireply proudly, “he’s my father.” They smile and cry, “Oh, I loveyour father! I’ve loved him all my life.” Sometimes, justsometimes, they ask me the most important question of all: “Was hea good father?” To their surprise, I shake my head and smile. “No,”I reply. “He wasn’t a good father, but he was a good man.” WhereDad came from, that meant a great deal more. So begins Deana Martin’s captivating and heartfelt memoir of herfather, the son of an Italian immigrant from modest beginnings whoworked his way to the top of the Hollywood firmament to become oneof the greatest stars of all t

From award-winning author John McGahern, a memoir of hischildhood in the Irish countryside and the beginnings of his lifeas a writer.McGahern describes his early years as one of sevenchildren growing up in rural County Leitrim, a childhood was markedby his father’s violent nature and the early death of his belovedmother. Tracing the memories of home through both people and place,McGahern details family life and the beginnings of a writing careerthat would take him far from home, and then back again. Hauntingand illuminating, All Will Be Well is an unforgettableportrait of Ireland and one of its most beloved writers.

“The Queen: God bless her. Anyone who loved Dinah Washingtonas I did will appreciate this book by Nadine Cohodas, whichbeautifully documents the joys and sorrows of the life of this ladywho was a peer of her contemporaries Ella Fitzgerald, SarahVaughan, and Billie Holliday.” --George Wein, author of Myself Among Others and founder of theNewport Jazz Festival “Dinah Washington died at thirty-nine, but packed so much lifeand incident into every moment it’s a wonder that Nadine Cohodascould sort it out; the marital adventures alone might have daunteda less avid biographer. Nor does she slight her music. Dinah couldmake every kind of song vital and personal, no matter thecontext–jazz, blues, swing, pop, r b, or r r. Cohodascaptures the Queen in all her obstinate spitfire glory.” --Gary Giddins, author of Weather Bird and Bing Crosby: APocketful of Dreams

Acclaimed British historian Anthony Everitt delivers a compelling account of the former orphan who became Roman emperor in A.D. 117 after the death of his guardian Trajan. Hadrian strengthened Rome by ending territorial expansion and fortifying existing borders. And - except for the uprising he triggered in Judea - his strength-based diplomacy brought peace to the realm after a century of warfare.

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

A champion of Africa, legendary for his good looks, his charm,and his prowess as a soldier, lover, and hunter, Denys Finch Hattoninspired Karen Blixen to write the unforgettable Out of Africa. Nowesteemed British biographer Sara Wheeler tells the truth about thisextraordinarily charismatic adventurer. Born to an old aristocratic family that had gambled away most ofits fortune, Finch Hatton grew up in a world of effortless eleganceand boundless power. In 1910, searching for something new, hearrived in British East Africa and fell in love–with a continent,with a landscape, with a way of life that was about to changeforever. In Nairobi, Finch Hatton met Karen Blixen and embarked onone of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.Intellectual equals, Finch Hatton and Blixen were genuine pioneersin a land that was quickly being transformed by violence, greed,and bigotry. Ever restless, Finch Hatton wandered into a career asa big-game hunter and became an expert bush pilot. Mesmerized allhis li

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

The long-awaited second volume of the best Churchill biographyreveals the true portrait of this ambitious world leader.Discussion centers on the alarm he sounded about the terrible plotbeing hatched inside Hitler's deranged mind. Two 8-page photosinserts.