Biography & autobiography / Literary

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading

by Nina Sankovitch

“NinaSankovitch has crafted a dazzling memoir that remindsus of the most primal function of literature-to heal, to nurture and to connectus to our truest selves." —Thrity Umrigar, author of The Space Between...

George Bowering: Bright Circles of Colour

by Eva-Marie Kroller

The first book-length, critical study of George Bowering explores the relationship between his work and the arts.

Surrendering Oz: A Life in Essays

by Bonnie Friedman

Surrendering Oz is about giving up the safety of emotionally zoning out – about learning to think with the body.

Timothy Findley and the Aesthetics of Fascism: Intertextual Collaboration and Resistance

by Anne Geddes Bailey

Investigates the troubling relationship between narrative meaning and representations of violence within Timothy Findley’s novels.

One week in the life of Stephen King

by Alexandra Varrin

« And so he enters the room. Unhurried, very casual. He looks tall, very tall, as he walks in with dropped shoulders and an uncertain, faint smile on his face. Under the clamor of cameras and the deluge of...

The Search for Philip K. Dick

by Anne R Dick

Offering an intimate perspective on the life of an important, prolific author, this revealing biography uncovers the inner workings of a cult figure through his tumultuous relationship with his third wife. Brilliant...

Childhood: An English Translation

by Maksim Gorky & Graham Hettlinger

Aleksey Peshkov overcame indigence, violence, and suicidal despair to become Maksim Gorky, one of the most widely read and influential writers of the twentieth century. Childhood, the first book in Gorky's acclaimed...

A Childhood In Scotland

by Christian Miller

Introduced by Dorothy Parker. 'When I was a little girl, the ghosts were more real to me than the people.' In this perceptive and unpretentious autobiography Christian Miller recalls her privileged but at the...

Conversations with Jay Parini

by Michael Lackey

Jay Parini (b. 1948) is best known for his novel about Leo Tolstoy’s last year, The Last Station, which has been translated into more than twenty-five languages and made into a Hollywood film. But he has also...

Conversations with William Gibson

by Patrick A. Smith

"After reading Neuromancer for the first time," literary scholar Larry McCaffery wrote, "I knew I had seen the future of [science fiction] (and maybe of literature in general), and its name was William Gibson."...

Conversations with Ken Kesey

by Scott F. Parker

Ken Kesey (1935–2001) is the author of several works of well-known fiction and other hard-to-classify material. His debut novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was a critical and commercial sensation that...

Unstuck In Provence: The courage to start over

by Carolyn Tate

Unstuck in Provence -The Courage to Start Over - a memoir At the age of 46, after years of single-motherhood and the unbearable feeling that life is going nowhere, Carolyn decides to get radically unstuck. After...

Hawthorne in Concord

by Philip Mcfarland

On his wedding day in 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne escorted his new wife, Sophia, to their first home, the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. There, enriched by friendships with Thoreau and Emerson, he enjoyed...

Influencing Hemingway: People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work

by Nancy W. Sindelar

Influencing Hemingway documents the places, people, and activities that influenced and intrigued Ernest Hemingway. Arranged chronologically and punctuated with photographs, the book traces Hemingway’s encounters...

Shakespeare: The Essential Guide to the Life and Works of the Bard

by Gail Kern Paster & Encyclopaedia Britannica

An authoritative, accessible overview of history's greatest literary figure

The great dramatist Ben Jonson wrote that William Shakespeare "was not of an age, but for all time." In the nearly four centuries since...

Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century

by Kevin Mattson

Praise for UPTON SINCLAIR and the other American Century

"I look forward to all of Kevin Mattson's works of history and I've notbeen disappointed yet. Upton Sinclair is a thoughtful, well-researched, and extremely...

The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman - An Autobiography

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This early work by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was originally published in 1935. It is the autobiography of the American sociologist, novelist and poet who is best remembered for her semi-autobiographical short...

The Women of the Nobel

by Massimo di Terlizzi

Forty-four women. Forty-four stories of incredible lives, each different from the other, but linked by the same leitmotif of excellence, perseverance and passion. This book aims at being a homage to all the...

The Book of Love

by Roger Rosenblatt

The beloved New York Times bestselling author Making Toast and Kayak Morning returns with a powerful meditation on a universal subject: love.

In The Book of Love, Roger Rosenblatt explores love in all its moods...

The Extraordinary Life of Rebecca West: A Biography

by Lorna Gibb

Rebecca West was a leading figure in the twentieth century literary scene. A passionate suffragist, socialist, fiercely intelligent, Rebecca West began her career as a writer with articles in The Freewoman and...