Literary Biography

In 1931, Gregory Hemingway's life begins in Kansas City, Missouri. The third and favourite son of an overbearing father, Greg is a paragon: a star athlete, a crack shot, bright and handsome and built like a pocket battleship. In 2001, Gloria Hemingway's life ends in a Miami women's correctional institution. Enduring heartache, disapproval and countless electroshock treatments, their existence has been a miracle. Inspired by true events and spanning seventy years of the last century, this is the story of a single, extraordinary life.

As a child, Clive Staples Lewis imagined many things...heroic animals and knights in armor and a faraway land called Boxen. He even thought of a new name for himself - at four years old, he decided he was more of a Jack. As he grew up, though, Jack found that the real world was not as just as the one in his imagination. No magic could heal the sick or stop a war, and a bully’s words could pierce as sharply as a sword. So Jack withdrew into books and eventually became a well-known author for adults.

When Lydia was five years old, she and her family had to leave their home. They hopped from Grandma's house to Aunt Linda's house to Cousin Alice's house, but no place was permanent. Then one day, everything changed: Lydia's mom took her to a new place - not a house but a big building with stone columns and tall tall steps. The library. In the library, Lydia found her special spot across from the sunny window at a round desk. For behind that desk was her new friend, the librarian.

Known to most as Lemony Snicket, the tormented narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler spends his days writing—for children and adults; film and television; and, on occasion, the accordion. Tracing his life in books from his first encounter with Baudelaire at a local library, And Then? And Then? What Else? offers a witty, poignant exploration of reading, writing and why we tell stories.

Bigger Thomas, the central figure in Richard Wright’s novel Native Son (1940), eludes easy categorization. A violent and troubled character who rejects the rules of society, Bigger is both victim and perpetrator, damaged by racism and segregation on the South Side of Chicago, seemingly raping and killing without regrets. His story has electrified readers for more than eight decades, and it continues to galvanize debates around representation, respectability, social justice, and racism in American life.

"Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her." That is the dilemma this powerful and beautifully observed work centers around.

A biography of C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia Chronicles, and one of the foremost apologists of the twentieth century. This book tells his story: beginning with his childhood in Ireland and telling of his long journey to faith. This book is written on a 5th-6th grade reading level, but younger children will enjoy listening to it also.

Moody and restless, teenage Louisa longed for freedom. Faced with the expectations of her loving but hapless family, the Alcotts, and of 19th-century New England society, she struggled to find her place. On long meandering runs through the woods behind Orchard House, she thought about a future where she could write and think and dream. Undaunted by periods of abject poverty and enriched by friendships with some of the greatest minds of her time and place, she was determined to have this future, no matter the cost.

Black Americans who have shaped their country and beyond: We are familiar with a handful of African Americans who are mentioned in American history books, but there are also countless others who do not get recognized in mainstream media. Their actions may not have appeared to shake the world, but their contributions to shifting American culture were just as groundbreaking.

Un volume che raccoglie per la prima volta tutti gli scritti che, a partire dagli anni Trenta fino alla morte, Dino Buzzati ha dedicato al Natale. Si tratta di articoli giornalistici, racconti, poesie, fiabe disegnate, resoconti autobiografici che, pubblicati su quotidiani e periodici, sono rimasti da allora per lo più inediti.

Tourists have sought out the landmarks, streets, and alleys of Charles Dickens's London ever since the death of the world-renowned author. Late Victorians and Edwardians were obsessed with tracking down the locations—dubbed "Dickensland"—that famously featured in his novels. But his fans were faced with a city that was undergoing rapid redevelopment, where literary shrines were far from sacred. Over the following century, sites connected with Dickens were demolished, relocated, and reimagined.

A collection of magazine writer Jon Bradshaw’s essential writings, The Ocean Is Closed rediscovers a memorable talent, and offers us a shadow reality to the established literary canon of the mid-century. With droll wit and keen intelligence, Bradshaw’s cinematic prose brings the ’70s to vibrant life.

Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' was published when she was 20 years old, but it is more than just a precocious book of early science fiction. In Episode 3 of The Book Club, Amit Varma explains how Shelley fearlessly tackled big themes, and delved as deep into human nature as the best literature of the time. Her book gave birth to many tropes that still exist – and showed an ambition that has since characterised the best writing in a genre she helped create.

Judy Blume is known for fearlessly discussing topics that were once considered taboo. As a young girl, Judy was not encouraged to share her feelings, so instead she invented stories as a way to understand the world around her. Growing up Jewish, during and in the aftermath of WWII, dramatically shaped Judy’s childhood. Her younger years were full of fear. Judy processed her conflicted emotions by making up stories where she could control the conflict as she worked through challenging life scenarios.

Sarah Brenner was always one of a kind, even with four sisters who dressed just like her. Growing up in an immigrant family on New York City’s impoverished Lower East Side, Sarah’s life was full of things that weren’t fair. It wasn’t fair that her parents had to leave Europe because of their religion. It wasn’t fair they worked hard all day and the family barely had enough to eat. It wasn’t fair how girls were treated in her school. When she grew up, Sarah gave herself a modern name, Sydney, just right for a woman who was going to forge her own path and continue to fight for a fairer world.

Growing up in China as the child of American missionaries, Pearl read and listened to stories from both the East and the West. A story, she thought, was a wonderful way to learn about people and places. Pearl had read and heard about America and her family there, but she had never met her American relatives. When, at the age of 10, she spent a year in America, Pearl came to understand that she was a part of two worlds. Between Two Worlds tells the story of how Pearl Buck worked to increase the understanding between the two worlds she knew.

'இலக்கிய முன்னோடிகள்' என்ற இந்நூல் 31 இலக்கியவாதிகளைப் பற்றிய தனித்தனிக் கட்டுரைகளின் தொகுப்பு. கு.அழகிரிசாமி எழுதிய 'நான் கண்ட எழுத்தாளர்கள், அறிஞர் வ.ரா. எழுதிய 'தமிழ்ப் பெரியார்கள்', வையாபுரிப்பிள்ளை எழுதிய'தமிழ்ச் சுடர்மணிகள்'என்று இதே பாணியில் அமைந்த சில நூல்கள் முன்னரே தமிழில் உண்டு.

A series of random sniper attacks, sexual assaults and murders continued at a relentless pace with no end in sight. The victims were both men and women, young and old, of all races and ethnicities. Most disturbingly, they had done nothing to place themselves in harm's way. They'd not visited the "bad" parts of town, frequented a gambling den, solicited prostitutes or sought out drug dealers. They were assaulted and murdered as they went about the routine activities of their lives, the kinds of things we all do without a second thought.

Tomie keeps hearing the phrase, "For the duration." Gas is being rationed "for the duration." The Fourth of July fireworks will be the last show "for the duration." So many things will be different as long as the war goes on, but much of Tomie's life goes on as usual. He's excited about starring in a dance recital, taking the bus around town all by himself, and having his first Communion. But Tomie is also still getting over his cousin's death in the war, and he has to say good-bye to his uncle as he ships off to basic training.

Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books, she returns to and expands upon the themes that have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor.