In the first full-scale biography of Mary Stuart in more thanthirty years, John Guy creates an intimate, gripping portrait ofone of history's greatest women and depicts her world and her placein the sweep of history with stunning immediacy. Bringing togetherall surviving documents and uncovering a trove of new sources forthe first time, Guy dispels the popular image of Mary Queen ofScots as a romantic leading ladyachieving her ends through femininewiles and establishes her as the intellectual and political equalof Elizabeth I. Through Guy's pioneering research and "fabulouslyreadable" prose, we come to see Mary as a skillful diplomat,maneuvering ingeniously among a dizzying array of factions thatsought to control or dethrone her. An enthralling, myth-shatteringlook at a complex woman and ruler and her time, Queen of Scots"reads like Shakespearean drama, with all the delicious plottingand fresh writing to go with it" (AtlantaJournal-Constitution).
This comprehensive, original portrait of the life and work ofone of America's greatest poets--set in the social, cultural, andpolitical context of his time--considers the full range of writingsby and about Whitman, including his early poems and stories, hisconversations, letters, journals, newspaper writings, and daybooks. of photos.
Dennis Rodman shoots from the lip as he talks about everythingfrom the NBA and his game, his sexuality, dating, his wild flingwith superstar Madonna, and morality. Reprint."
In her acclaimed collections Happy Family and Music Minus One,Jane Shore traced her life from childhood to coming of age toparenthood. Now, in A Yes-or-No Answer, Shore etches thepersistence of the past in a life that has moved into a mature newphase as a member of the baby boom generation. Recalling her Jewishchildhood in New Jersey, living in the apartment above the family'sclothing store, Shore lovingly imagines her parents, now gone,reunited with relatives over a Scrabble board in the afterlife. Thepoet's teenage daughter sorts through the "vintage" clothes of hermother's own hippie days. Cherished items left behind -- an addressbook, a piano, an easy chair, a favorite doll -- continue to hauntthe living. The poems in A Yes-or-No Answer dignify memory throughprecise detail, with a voice that will resonate for a generation ata crossroads.
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.
William Lee Miller’s ethical biography is a fresh, engagingtelling of the story of Lincoln’s rise to power. Through carefulscrutiny of Lincoln’s actions, speeches, and writings, and ofaccounts from those who knew him, Miller gives us insight into themoral development of a great politician — one who made the choiceto go into politics, and ultimately realized that vocation’sfullest moral possibilities. As Lincoln’s Virtues makes refreshingly clear, Lincoln wasnot born with his face on Mount Rushmore; he was an actual humanbeing making choices — moral choices — in a real world. In anaccount animated by wit and humor, Miller follows this unschooledfrontier politician’s rise, showing that the higher he went and thegreater his power, the worthier his conduct would become. He wouldbecome that rare bird, a great man who was also a good man.Uniquely revealing of its subject’s heart and mind, it represents amajor contribution to our understanding and of Lincoln, and to theperennial American discu
