A gathering ofbrilliant and viciously funny recollections from one of thetwentieth century’s most famous literary enfants terribles. Written in 1980 but published here for the first time, thesetexts tell the story of the various farces that developed aroundthe literary prizes Thomas Bernhard received in his lifetime.Whether it was the Bremen Literature Prize, the Grillparzer Prize,or the Austrian State Prize, his participation in the acceptanceceremony—always less than gracious, it must be said—resulted inscandal (only at the awarding of the prize from Austria’s FederalChamber of Commerce did Bernhard feel at home: he received thatone, he said, in recognition of the great example he set forshopkeeping apprentices). And the remuneration connected with theprizes presented him with opportunities for adventure—of thenew-house and luxury-car variety. Here is a portrait of the writer as a prizewinner: laconic,sardonic, and shaking his head with biting amusement at the w

Amid the aristocratic ranks of the Confederate cavalry, NathanBedford Forrest was untutored, all but unlettered, and regarded asno more than a guerrilla. His tactic was the headlong charge,mounted with such swiftness and ferocity that General Shermancalled him a "devil" who should "be hunted down and killed if itcosts 10,000 lives and bankrupts the treasury." And in a war inwhich officers prided themselves on their decorum, Forresthabitually issued surrender-or-die ultimatums to the enemy andoften intimidated his own superiors. After being in command at thenotorious Fort Pillow Massacre, he went on to haunt the South asthe first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Now this epic figure is restored to human dimensions in anexemplary biography that puts both Forrest's genius and hissavagery into the context of his time, chronicling his rise fromfrontiersman to slave trader, private to lieutenant general,Klansman to -- eventually -- New South businessman and racialmoderate. Unflinching in its analysis

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.

“Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyricalcoming-of-age story as well as a candid and heart-warming tributeto her parents. Growing Up X is destined to become aclassic.” –SPIKE LEE February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated inHarlem’s Audubon Ballroom. June 23, 1997: After surviving for aremarkable twenty-two days, his widow, Betty Shabazz, dies of burnssuffered in a fire. In the years between, their six daughters reachadulthood, forged by the memory of their parents’ love, the meaningof their cause, and the power of their faith. Now, at long last,one of them has recorded that tumultuous journey in anunforgettable memoir: Growing Up X . Born in 1962, Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious livewirewho fought for–and won–attention in an all-female household. Shecarried on the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable motherwhile navigating childhood and, along the way, learning to do thehustle. She was a different color from other kids at camp and yet,years later as a y

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.

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

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One ofthe greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatestbaseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend –and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? Whatmotivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to servehis country as a fighter pilot; to embrace his fans while tanglingwith the media; to retreat from the limelight whenever possibleinto his solitary love of fishing; and to become the most famousman ever to have his body cryogenically frozen after his death? NewYork Times bestselling author Leigh Montville, who wrote thecelebrated Sports Illustrated obituary of Ted Williams, nowdelivers an intimate, riveting account of this extraordinarylife. Still a gangly teenager when he stepped into a Boston Red Soxuniform in 1939, Williams’s boisterous personality and penchant fortowering home runs earned him adoring admirers--the fans--andvenomous critics--the sportswriters. In 1941, the enti

After twenty years as a foreign correspondent in tumultuouslocales, Judith Matloff is ready to return to her native New YorkCity and start a family with her husband, John. Intoxicated by WestHarlem’s cultural diversity and, more important, its affordability,Judith impulsively buys a stately fixer-upper brownstone in theneighborhood–only to discover that this dream house was once acrack den and that calling it a “fixer upper” is an understatement.Thus begins the couple’s odyssey to win over brazen drug dealers,delinquent construction workers, and eccentric neighbors in one ofthe biggest drug zones in the country. It’s a far cry from utopia,but it’s a start, and Judith and John do all they can to carve outa comfortable life–and, over time, come to appreciate theneighborhood’s rough charms. A wry, reflective, and hugelyentertaining memoir, Home Girl is for anyone who has longedto go home, however complicated the journey.