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

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

波姬·小丝（Brooke Christa Shields）， 美国 著名 女演员 和 模特 ，1965年生于 纽约 城，拥有 意大利 、 法国 、 爱尔兰 和 英国 的贵族血统，其祖母是意大利公主Donna Marina Torlonia。小丝出生11个月就为香皂拍过广告，14岁就成为Vogue杂志封面年轻的时装模特；更是用家喻户晓的广告成就了Calvin Klein品牌牛仔装。13岁就在1978年的影片《漂亮宝贝》(Pretty Baby)中扮演一个童妓；1980年的《青春珊瑚岛/蓝色泻湖》(Blue Lagoon)中，出演因海上事故流落荒岛逐渐长大成为少年的两个孩子中的女孩，青春靓丽脱俗的形象让年仅15岁的波姬·小丝红极一时。

Book De*ion Isaac Newton was born in a stone farmhouse in 1642, fatherlessand unwanted by his mother. When he died in London in 1727 he wasso renowned he was given a state funeral—an unheard-of honor for asubject whose achievements were in the realm of the intellect.During the years he was an irascible presence at Trinity College,Cambridge, Newton imagined properties of nature and gave themnames—mass, gravity, velocity—things our science now takes forgranted. Inspired by Aristotle, spurred on by Galileo’s discoveriesand the philosophy of Descartes, Newton grasped the intangible anddared to take its measure, a leap of the mind unparalleled in hisgeneration. James Gleick, the author of Chaos and Genius, and one of the mostacclaimed science writers of his generation, brings the reader intoNewton’s reclusive life and provides startlingly clear explanationsof the concepts that changed forever our perception of bodies,rest, and motion—ideas so basic to the twenty-first century, it cant

An erudite history of medicine...a welcome addition to anymedical collection. -- Booklist How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have usbelieve that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhumantalents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. Butas renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nulandshows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, thetheory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women Who have shaped theworld of medicine have been not only very human people but alsovery much the products of their own times and places. Presentingcompelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers,Doctors gives us the extraordinary story of the development ofmodern medicine -- told through the lives of thephysician-scientists whose deeds and determination paved the way.Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, toAndreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offeredinval

As a young guardsman, Grigory Potemkin caught the eye ofCatherine the Great with a theatrical act of gallantry during thecoup that placed her on the throne. Over the next thirty years hewould become her lover, co-ruler, and husband in a secret marriagethat left room for both to satisfy their sexual appetites. Potemkinproved to be one of the most brilliant statesmen of the eighteenthcentury, helping Catherine expand the Russian empire and deftlymanipulating allies and adversaries from Constantinople toLondon. This acclaimed biographyvividly re-creates Potemkin’s outsized character andaccomplishments and restores him to his rightful place as acolossus of the eighteenth century. It chronicles the tempestuousrelationship between Potemkin and Catherine, a remarkable loveaffair between two strong personalities that helped shape thecourse of history. As he brings these characters to life,Montefiore also tells the story of the creation of the Russianempire. This is biography as it is meant to be: both inti

In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recountsher extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to theworld stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977,she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused onthe empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa.Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personallosses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathaicontinued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and torestore democracy to her beloved country . Infused with herunique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai’s remarkable story ofcourage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspiregenerations to come.

Fidel Castro is perhaps the most charismatic and controversialhead of state in modern times. A dictatorial pariah to some, he hasbecome a hero and inspiration for many of the world's poor,defiantly charting an independent and revolutionary path for Cubaover nearly half a century. Numerous attempts have been made to get Castro to tell his ownstory. But only now, in the twilight of his years, has he beenprepared to set out the details of his remarkable biography for theworld to read. This book is nothing less than his living testament.As he told reporters, his desire to finish checking its text wasthe one thing that kept him going through his recent illness. Hepresented a copy of the book in its Spanish edition to his compadrePresident Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. In these pages, Castro narrates a compelling chronicle thatspans the harshness of his elementary school teachers; the earlyfailures of the revolution; his intense comradeship with CheGuevara and their astonishing, against-all-odds victory over thedic

Immensely learned, self-educated in an era when formal schoolingwas denied to women, Mary Wortley Montagu was an admired poet, aconsistently scandalous doyenne of eighteenth-century Londonsociety, and, in a period when letter-writing had been elevated toan art form, one of the greatest letter writers in the Englishlanguage. Her epistles, meant for both public and privateconsumption, are the product of a mind distinguished by itsadventurousness, its indifference to convention, and its eagernessnot only to acquire knowledge but to convey it with unmitigatedstyle and grace.

No writer alive today exerts the magical appeal of GabrielGarcía Márquez. Now, in the long-awaited first volume of hisautobiography, he tells the story of his life from his birth in1927 to the moment in the 1950s when he proposed to his wife. Theresult is as spectacular as his finest fiction. Here is García Márquez’s shimmering evocation of his childhoodhome of Aracataca, the basis of the fictional Macondo. Here are themembers of his ebulliently eccentric family. Here are the forcesthat turned him into a writer. Warm, revealing, abounding in imagesso vivid that we seem to be remembering them ourselves, Living toTell the Tale is a work of enchantment.

The first dual biography of two of the world’s most remarkablewomen—Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots—by one ofBritain’s “best biographers” ( The Sunday Times ). In a rich and riveting narrative, Jane Dunn reveals theextraordinary rivalry between the regal cousins. It is the story oftwo queens ruling on one island, each with a claim to the throne ofEngland, each embodying dramatically opposing qualities ofcharacter, ideals of womanliness (and views of sexuality) anddivinely ordained kingship. As regnant queens in an overwhelmingly masculine world, they weredeplored for their femaleness, compared unfavorably with each otherand courted by the same men. By placing their dynamic andever-changing relationship at the center of the book, Dunnilluminates their differences. Elizabeth, inheriting a weak,divided country coveted by all the Catholic monarchs of Europe, isrevolutionary in her insistence on ruling alone and inspired in heruse of celibacy as a political tool—yet also possessed of

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story ofthe Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and JohnRomero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popularculture. And they provoked a national controversy. More thananything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream,escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the mostnotoriously successful game franchises in history— Doom and Quake — until the games they made tore them apart. This is astory of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerfuland compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven,and wildly creative.

Prize-winning biographer Robert D. Richardson has written thedefinitive biography of the fascinating William James, whose lifeand writing put an indelible stamp on psychology, philosophy,teaching, and religion—and on modernism itself. A pivotal member ofthe Metaphysical Club, author of The Varieties of ReligiousExperience, and older brother of extraordinary siblings Henry andAlice, William emerges here as an immensely complex man.Richardson’s thought-provoking and utterly moving work, ten yearsin the making, draws on a vast number of unpublished letters,journals, and family records. Through impassioned scholarship,Richardson illuminates James’s hugely influential works: TheVarieties, Principles of Psychology, Talks to Teachers, andPragmatism. Finally, brought richly to life through Richardson’sbrilliant insights, James is given his due as a man whose influenceresonates in innumerable areas of modern life.

When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently asked'What is a hero?' I remember the glib response I repeated somany times. My answer was that a hero is someone who commitsa courageous action without considering the consequences--a soldierwho crawls out of a foxhole to drag an injured buddy tosafety. And I also meant individuals who are slightly largerthan life: Houdini and Lindbergh, John Wayne, JFK, and JoeDiMaggio. Now my definition is completely different. Ithink a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength topersevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles: afifteen-year-old boy who landed on his head while wrestling withhis brother, leaving him barely able to swallow or speak; TravisRoy, paralyzed in the first thirty seconds of a hockey game in hisfreshman year at college. These are real heroes, and so arethe families and friends who have stood by them." The whole world held its breath when Christopher Reeve struggledfor life on Memorial Day, 1995. On the

This major study of the composer's life and work follows thecourse of Bach's career in rich detail - from his humble beginningsas an organ tuner and self-taught musician, to his role asKapellmeister and cantor of St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig. Itexplores Bach's relations with the German aristocracy, the Churchand contemporary theological debates, his perfectionism, and hisrole as the devoted head of a large family. The author alsocarefully analyses Bach's innovations in harmony and counterpoint,placing them in the context of European musical and socialhistory.

Robert Hughes has trained his critical eye on many majorsubjects, from the city of Barcelona to the history of his nativeAustralia. Now he turns that eye inward, onto himself and the worldthat formed him. Hughes analyzes his experiences the way he mightexamine a Van Gogh or a Picasso. From his relationship with hisstern and distant father to his Catholic upbringing and schoolyears; and from his development as an artist, writer, and critic tohis growing appreciation of art and his exhilaration at leavingAustralia to discover a new life, Hughes’ memoir is anextraordinary feat of exploration and celebration.

In Listening to Whales, Alexandra Morton shares spellbindingstories about her career in whale and dolphin research and what shehas learned from and about these magnificent mammals. In the late1970s, while working at Marineland in California, Alexandrapioneered the recording of orca sounds by dropping a hydrophoneinto the tank of two killer whales. She recorded the variedlanguage of mating, childbirth, and even grief after the birth of astillborn calf. At the same time she made the startling observationthat the whales were inventing wonderful synchronized movements, abehavior that was soon recognized as a defining characteristic oforca society. In 1984, Alexandra moved to a remote bay in British Columbia tocontinue her research with wild orcas. Her recordings of the whaleshave led her to a deeper understanding of the mystery of whaleecholocation, the vocal communication that enables the mammals tofind their way in the dark sea. A fascinating study of the profoundcommunion between humans and whales