However the money goes to someone he doesn't know - a man who lives in hospital and is the brother Charlie never knew he had. The two meet and so starts a surprising new life for both of them. A deeply emotional story and also a major film starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.

    Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying. At moments a comic, self-deluded victim, but in the end the principal, tragic actor in a divine plan, Owen Meany is the most heartbreaking hero John Irving has yet created.

    It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins.From 1629 to 1775, North America was settled by four great waves of English-speaking immigrants. The first was an exodus of Puritans from the east of England to Massachusetts (1629-1640). The second was the movement of a Royalist elite and indentured servants from the south of England to Virginia (ca. 1649-75). The third was the "Friends' migration,"--the Quakers--from the North Midlands and Wales to the Delaware Valley (ca. 1675-1725). The fourth was a great flight from the borderlands of North Britain and northern Ireland to the American backcountry (ca. 1717-75).These four groups differed in many ways--in religion, rank, generation and place of origin. They brought to America different folkways which became the basis of regional cultures in the United States. They spoke distinctive English dialects and built their houses in diverse ways. They had different ideas of family, marriage and gender; different practices of child-naming and child-raising; different attitudes toward sex, age and death; different rituals of worship and magic; different forms of work and play; different customs of food and dress; different traditions of education and literacy; different modes of settlement and association. They also had profoundly different ideas of comity, order, power and freedom which derived from British folk-traditions. Albion's Seed describes those differences in detail, and discusses the continuing importance of their transference to America.Today most people in the United States (more than 80 percent) have no British ancestors at all. These many other groups, even while preserving their own ethnic cultures, have also assimilated regional folkways which were transplanted from Britain to America. In that sense, nearly all Americans today are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnic origins may be; but they are so in their different regional ways. The concluding section of Albion's Seed explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still control attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.Albion's Seed also argues that the four British folkways created an expansive cultural pluralism that has proved to the more libertarian than any single culture alone could be. Together they became the determinants of a voluntary society in the United States.

    The novel has prompted comparisons to Miguel de Cervantes, William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, and even the Bible. The new edition of this critical volume brings together full-length essays that explore the nuances of Marquez's captivating fictive world. This study guide comes complete with an introductory essay by master scholar Harold Bloom, notes on the contributors, and reference features such as a chronology, bibliography, and index.

    His addresses at Gettysburg and at his inaugurals, his presidential messages and public lectures, are an essential record of the war and have forever shaped the nation’s memories of it. This Library of America volume collects writings from 1859 to 1865 and contains 555 speeches, messages, proclamations, letters, memoranda, and fragments. They record the words and deeds—the order to resupply Fort Sumter, the emancipation of the slaves held in the Confederacy, and proposals to offer the South generous terms of reconstruction—by which he hoped to defend and preserve the Union.The speeches and letters Lincoln wrote in 1859 and 1860 show his unyielding opposition to the spread of slavery and his canny appraisals of the upcoming election in which he was to win the presidency. His victory triggered the secession that he would oppose in his First Inaugural, with its appeal to logic, history, and “the better angels of our nature.”Lincoln’s wartime writings record the nearly overwhelming burdens of office during a fratricidal war, and the added burden of self-seeking Cabinet members, military cliques, and a bitter political opposition. He was savagely criticized both for being too harsh and for being too mild. He ordered the blockade of ports, suspended habeas corpus, jailed dissenters, and applauded Sherman’s devastating march to the sea; at the same time he granted clemency to individual Union deserters and releases to Confederate prisoners. “I expect to maintain this contest until successful,” he declared, and toward that end he was prepared, not without his characteristic drolleries, to suffer the paradoxes of leadership in a nation at war with itself. His writings here include pleas to his own party to spare him their patronage feuds and to generals that they act more resolutely in the field. The struggles that taxed his physical endurance also tempered his prose style, as evidenced in the nobility of his state papers, his sparse words at Gettysburg, and his poignant letter to Mrs. Bixby, consoling her for the deaths of her sons in battle.In a message to Congress in December 1862, Lincoln wrote of the fiery trial through which the nation was passing: “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.” By 1865, he was ready to offer the nation his view of the Almighty’s purposes and did so in his Second Inaugural Address with a beauty, clarity, and severity unsurpassed in American letters. Soon after, he fell to an assassin’s bullet, joining six hundred thousand of his countrymen killed in the war. He became part of what he called “the cherished memory of the loved and lost,” all those who had died that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”

    Both were born and raised in Mississippi. Both fought in Vietnam. Both were gravely wounded. Now, twenty-two years later, the two men lie in adjacent beds in a VA hospital.Over the course of a day and a night, Walter James and Braiden Chaney talk of memories, of passions, of fate. With great vision, humor, and courage, Brown writes mostly about love in a story about the waste of war.

    Poems deal with language, desire, suffering, art, human relationships, and mortality.

    A New Path to the Waterfall was Carver's last book, and shows a writer telling the truth as best as he knows how in the time left to him. The sixty-odd poems in this collection are linked by Carver with selections from other writers, most notably Chekhov, whose work was an inspiration and a guide, and by the cumulative force of the life and death questions he poses in them. As Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet guided countless readers discovering their true love and work, Carver's book will guide those in the process of celebrating a limited life and mourning the inescapable end of it. A New Path to the Waterfall is an essential book for those who admire Carver's work, and testament to the transcendent strength of the human spirit. In her introductory essay, Tess Gallagher, Carver's companion and fellow writer, lays out the circumstances of their last years together with matter-of-fact grace.

    No person or group outside of our own is likely to see our need for a collective rebirth of consiousness.

    This ironic perspective on the human condition is valuable but it cannot advance liberalism's social and political goals. In fact, Rorty believes that it is literature and not philosophy that can do this, by promoting a genuine sense of human solidarity. Specifically, it is novelists such as Orwell and Nabokov who succeed in awakening us to the cruelty of particular social practices and individual attitudes. Thus, a truly liberal culture would fuse the private, individual freedom of the ironic, philosophical perspective with the public project of human solidarity as it is engendered through the insights and sensibilities of great writers. Rorty uses a wide range of references--from philosophy to social theory to literary criticism--to elucidate his beliefs.

    Here in the third edition, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peak performance at every level of the game. The theory and applications are illustrated by anecdotes and insights from major and minor league players, who at some point discovered the importance of mastering the inner game in order to play baseball as it should be played. Intended for players, managers, coaches, agents, and administrators as well as fans who want a more in-depth look at the makeup of the complete baseball player.

    It charts their achievements and their continued impact on the world. Foreword by Maya Angelou.

    Against the mythical dreamscape of America, Auster brilliantly weaves the bizarre narrative of Marco Stanley Fogg, an orphan searching for love, his father, and the key to the riddle of his origin and fate.

    As Marco sets out on a journey from the canyons of Manhattan to the deserts of Utah, he encounters a gallery of characters and a series of events as rich and surprising as any in modern fiction.Beginning during the summer that men first walked on the moon, and moving backward and forward in time to span three generations, Moon Palace is propelled by coincidence and memory, and illuminated by marvelous flights of lyricism and wit. Here is the most entertaining and moving novel yet from an author well known for his breathtaking imagination.

    By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is--just a disease. Cancer, she argues, is not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment and, it is highly curable, if good treatment is followed.Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Sontag wrote a sequel to Illness as Metaphor, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic.These two essays now published together, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, have been translated into many languages and continue to have an enormous influence on the thinking of medical professionals and, above all, on the lives of many thousands of patients and caregivers.

    Brings together three hilarious pieces by America's comic genius: Without Feathers, a secret journal that addresses life's "big" questions; Getting Even, Woody as psychologist, historian, and philosopher; and Side Effects, Woody's take on UFOs and more.

    A well-digger and policeman in a bleak New Hampshire town, he is a former high-school star gone to beer fat, a loner with a mean streak. It is a mark of Russell Banks' artistry and understanding that Wade comes to loom in one's mind as a blue-collar American Everyman afflicted by the dark secret of the macho tradition. Told by his articulate, equally scarred younger brother, Wade's story becomes as spellbinding and inexorable as a fuse burning its way to the dynamite.

    Edited by Lee Ann Brown. SONNETS, first published in 1989 as Tender Buttons Number 1 is widely considered to be one of the most generative and innovative works of contemporary American poetry, radically rethinking the traditional sonnet form. This expanded 25th Anniversary edition includes a new preface by Bernadette Mayer, an editor's note by Tender Buttons Press publisher Lee Ann Brown, and a selection of previously unpublished archival material including the Skinny Sonnets, described as Hypnogogic Word Playing in Reporters' Notebooks which further expand our map of Bernadette Mayer's ground- breaking works of writing consciousness.

    Yet, inexplicably, in the light of astonishing intellectual and technological advancement, Man's progress has been halted in one crucial area; he still indulges the primitive beast within and makes war upon his neighbors.As a result of seven years of intense research, William Bramley has uncovered the sinister thread that links humanity's darkest events -- from the wars of the ancient pharaohs to the assassination of JFK. In this remarkable, shocking and absolutely compelling work, Bramley presents disturbing evidence of an alien presence on Earth -- extraterrestrial visitors who have conspired to dominate Humankind through violence and chaos since the beginning of time...a conspiracy which continues to this very day.

    Then Jane McCrae comes into their lives like a hurricane. When Cary falls in love with her, the boy's twosome becomes a tightly knit group of three, and they make plans for their summer after high school graduation. When Cary must remain in Killdeer, Adam and Jane head off to the Outer Banks alone, where they fall under the spell of the Lost Colony Hotel and its mysterious and charming proprietors. In a summer full of bright promise and heartache, Adam's feelings for Jane force him to make a difficult choice. . .

    Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship. As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff does a masterful job of re-creating the frustrations and cruelties of adolescence. His various schemes - running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars - lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility.

    Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years—where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and law school, while Melissa flunks out of a series of "good schools." While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Eventually she and Andy do become involved in a brief affair, but it is really too late for both of them. However Andy's last letter, written to her mother after Melissa's untimely death, makes it eloquently clear how much they really meant, and gave to, each other over the years—physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

    In these ten stories, Mark Richard, winner of the 1990 PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, emerges as the heir apparent to Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, and William Faulkner.

    "Stephen Strom's photographs lead you to that place," writes Joy Harjo. "The camera eye becomes a space you can move through into the powerful landscapes that he photographs. The horizon may shift and change all around you, but underneath it is the heart with which we move." Harjo's prose poems accompany these images, interpreting each photograph as a story that evokes the spirit of the Earth. Images and words harmonize to evoke the mysteries of what the Navajo call the center of the world.

    The complete poems of Charles Reznikoff in one volume, covering the years 1918-1975.

    In letters that are poignant and often angry, yet touched with the humor that characterizes his monologues, Dear Dad chronicles Anderson's hard journey from shame and fear to understanding.Anderson's many appearances on The Tonight Show, his specials on HBO and Showtime, and his concerts across the country have won him wide acclaim. But when he found that, despite his considerable success as a comic, he felt no relief from his pain, Anderson entered therapy and joined an Adult Children of Alcoholics group. Only then was he able to break a lifelong pattern of denial.Includes an introduction by Anderson and a selection of letters from Dear Dad readers about their own experiences."Compelling, tender, funny, and well-written. . . . I respect Louie's courage for talking so openly. Writing the book may have helped the writer in his healing process, but it will also assist readers in theirs."--Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More

    In a Vienna window, he glimpses the face of a lost erotic dream, and from there travels to the Twentieth Century's darkest corner to confront its shocked and secret conscience. One of Steve Erickson's most acclaimed novels, Tours of the Black Clock crosses the intersections of passion and power and gazes into a clock with no face, where memory is the gravity of time and all the numbers fall like rain.

    Included are two previously published articles in addition to commentaries written originally for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered".

    Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. New rare sketches and notes from the author's personal journal, forewords from two of the world's leading poets of the Beat Generation, and an introduction by David Amram, the man who collaborated with Jack Kerouac in the first-ever live poetry reading in 1957, are collected here for the first time in this revised and unique edition of Mindfield. This poetry is an affront to all that limits, restrains, or frightens. "Death I unsalute you," Gregory declares. Beyond energy and sheer brilliance, these poems offer the wisdom of a man unstuck and a mind content with the freedom of knowing truth without being afraid of it.

    Throughout the time he was creating his greatest work, Steinbeck faithfully kept a journal revealing his arduous journey toward its completion.The journal, like the novel it chronicles, tells a tale of dramatic proportions—of dogged determination and inspiration, yet also of paranoia, self-doubt, and obstacles. It records in intimate detail the conception and genesis of The Grapes of Wrath and its huge though controversial success. It is a unique and penetrating portrait of an emblematic American writer creating an essential American masterpiece.

    In this delightful tour of the galaxies, Merlin often recounts his conversations with these historical figures in his responses to popular astronomy questions asked by adults and children alike. Merlin's well-informed answers combine a unique combination of wit and poetry along with serious science explained in refreshingly clear, reader-friendly language.Dear Merlin: Can a person cross our galaxy in a spaceship during one human lifespan?Merlin: In 1905, Merlin's good friend Albert Einstein introduced the "Special Theory of Relativity," which predicts that time will tick slower and slower the faster you travel. Were you to embark on such an adventure you could conceivably age as little as you wish, depending of course, on your exact speed. The problem arises when you return to Earth, which will have moved several hundred thousand years into the future and everyone will have forgotten about you.A skywatcher's book for lovers of the universe by one of its greatest lights.

    Poetry by noted author Jim Harrison.

    Burroughs comes thirteen unnerving and often breathtaking stories populated by punks and angels, skinheads and religious assassins, streetwalkers and fetishists--people who live outside the law and and the clear light of the every day. Set in landscapes as diverse as ancient Babylon, India, and the seamy underbelly of San Francisco, these daring and innovative tales are laced with Vollman's fertile imagination. The Rainbow Stories ushers us into a world that bears an awful yet hypnotic resemblance to that of our deepest nightmares, confirming Vollmann's reputation as a dark visionary of contemporary fiction.

    A collection of the best writing--minus the numbers and complicated formulas--that Bill James has written in the years that his Baseball Abstract established itself as a baseball and literary legend, as well as an annual bestseller.

    To celebrate, this book covers his amazing writing career, spanning over four decades and more than 400

    Hay deals with the most common and pressing issues that we face throughout our lives such as growing up, relationships, work, spirituality, the twilight years and death...and the many problems, fears and challenges that these passages bring. No matter what obstacles lie before you, Louise continually reminds you that the magnificent, frightening, delightful, astounding phenomenon that you experience between birth and death is what life is all about.

    Danny is determined to get closer to his son, Jack, to teach him traditional ways to steer him away from rodeoing. Danny and Jack survive a forest fire, make a go of it as migrant workers, then finally settle down to salmon fishing on the Columbia River. There they join forces with Willis Salwish, a mysterious old Yakima Indian who clings to traditional fishing sites despite opposition from white fisherman. Danny's friendship with Willis draws him into the dispute over fishing rights, and it's Willis who brings him face to face with ghosts from his past, and leads him to his lost heritage.

    Here in one volume is the measure of this enormous influence on the literary and intellectual history of our time. 8-page photo insert.

    Wilson (The Economist)In Bureaucracy, the distinguished scholar James Q. Wilson examines a wide range of bureaucracies, including the US Army, the FBI, the CIA, the FCC, and the Social Security Administration, providing the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of what government agencies do, why they operate the way they do, and how they might become more responsible and effective. It is the essential guide to understanding how American government works.

    Instructive, certainly. But, like any good companion, a pleasure to be with over a long period of time." —Lloyd Alexander, from the ForewordThis intriguing volume is at once a wonderful reference resource and a vehicle for exploration and discovery in itself. Complete with a biographical sketch of Lloyd Alexander, a personal Foreword by Mr. Alexander himself, a "How to Use the Companion" section from the author, pronunciation keys, and excerpts throughout, and "most substantially" an alphabetical guide to the peoples, places, and objects of the Prydain Chronicles, The Prydain Companion is a one-stop reference book for a beloved world of fantasy and magic.So for those who love the works of Lloyd Alexander "young readers, teachers, researchers, all" and those who are only beginning to know them, here is a worthy and useful travelmate.

    The cultish humor, original characters, fresh cinematography, catchy soundtrack, and zany yet well-structured plot to be found in this film are all Coen brothers trademarks. Nicholas Cage plays a veteran criminal who marries a prison guard named Edwina (Holly Hunter). Because he and his wife cannot conceive, our convict-hero kidnaps, with only the most earnest intentions, one of the famous "Arizona Quintuplets." A hellacious bounty-hunting biker and two old pals who have just escaped from the pen make it very hard for the couple to raise their child properly.This is a movie—and a screenplay—marked by breathless chases, improbable scenes, and hilarious dialogue throughout.

    Sharif.Selected from U.S. and Canadian magazines by Margaret Atwood with Shannon Ravenel; with an introduction by Margaret Atwood.

    They evoke the spaces of the New Mexican desert, the Alaskan tundra, her Chinese home, and the interior self in relationships, as the poet makes empathy a metaphor for the space of one person inside another. The lines of verse are long, sensuous, and prose-like, following the open horizons of the West. "Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's poetry moves from 'inner' phenomena to ones coming from the 'external' world and back again with breathtaking evenness. Calmly and convincingly she leads our attention from...confidence or passion or attention itself to ice crystals, gulls fireworks, or apple trees and to very specific qualities of perception, especially vision—most notably, those associated with the properties of light—fogginess, brightness, colors—(what a poet of light she is!)—in poetry that always speaks equally about 'the world' and 'herself.' She is neither 'objectivist' nor 'subjectivist' but a poet of the whole consciousness. A virtuoso of the long line, hers—unlike those of most other poets—are startlingly non-rhapsodic, although they are more truly emotional than those of most rhapsodists. I've known and loved Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's poetry for years. It gets better all the time"—Jackson Mac Low.

    Collecting found stories as part of her ongoing “People Pieces” series, she has created a remarkable distillation of the rhythms and nuances of a specific landscape that proves common to us all. These fifty-four monologues and dialogues are statements of life from the region of the heart.“The pieces all come from people. I never sat my desk and made them up. I heard the heart of each of them somewhere. A grocery store line. A beauty shop. The emergency room. A neighbor across her clothesline to another neighbor. I am an eavesdropper and I practiced being invisible to get them.” – Jo Carson, from the Preface.JO CARSON is an author of poems, plays, short stories and essays who lives and works in Johnson City, Tennessee. She has toured internationally with Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet and her play, Daytrips, has been widely produced. Ms. Carson has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

    Destructive Generation, which critics have compared to The God That Failed and to Whittaker Chambers' Witness, is a modern conservative classic-imperative reading for anyone who wants to understand the New Left and its sad legacy for America.

    This collection maintains a conversational charm while taking the contemporary personal essay to a new level of complexity and candor.

    It includes statements from women across the country of all ages.

    Killian produces a pantheon of distinctive characters--including himself as a young writer whose half-hearted work on a book about his murdered gay lover is stalled by his absorption in the dramas of others around him. The misfits, losers, adolescent rebels and rootless souls of Smithtown, Long Island (N.Y.), whose petty dreams and futile hopes the author sets forth with mercy, are the spiritual kin of Christopher Isherwood's creations in The Berlin Stories. Killian displays a facility for developing teenaged characters, such as Harry Van who, at 15 or 16, is continually aware that his golden youth is temporary; and Paula, a romantic who finds enlightenment in the music of David Bowie. His work is also noteworthy for unlikely phrasings ("Her face lit up like a jack-o-lantern, from inside, with the incredible light and heat of love").

    In Laughing Wild, two comic monologues evolve into a man and a woman’s shared nightmare of modern life and the isolation it creates. From her turf battles at the supermarket to the desperate clichés of self-affirmation he learns at his “per­sonality workshop,” they run the gamut of everyday life’s small brutalizations until they meet, with disastrous inevitability, at the Harmonic Convergence in Central Park.

    I had obviously been invented by someone else–by a whole society– and I did't like their invention.All those years in that little town in Arkansas, I learned through the literature. So much that when I later grew to be six feet tall, and at sixteen had a child and was unmarried, years later I decided that this is my world. My grandparents' and great grandparents' and great, great, great grandparents' blood and sweat enriched this soil. So this is my country.The black writer in particular should throw out all of that propaganda and pressure, disbelieve everything one is told to believe and believe everything one is told not to believe. Start with a completely clean slate and decide, "I will put it out."To begin with, if you're black and every model of beauty is either white or dark-skinned black, then it has to create some insecurity in a person like me, who couldn't conform. But I was blessed with the advantage of anger. It was a kind of hauteur. I could withdraw from such plebeian company and stand tall and sneer.

    THE POLITICS OF POETIC FORM: POETRY AND PUBLIC POLICY is a series of essays from a discussion that occurred at the New School for Social Research in New York. The discussion mines the relationship between poetic composition and political expression. Poetry's relationship to public policy typically has a questionable margin of relation. Not only does this volume posit that poetry is a dynamic medium for the consideration of political ideas, it focuses on the ideological weight specific formal innovations bring to poetry. Some of the writers include Jerome Rothenberg, Ron Silliman, Susan Howe, Nathaniel Mackey and Charles Bernstein.

    Overflowing with wisdom and humor, here is a comprehensive collection of favorite tales from vigorous and vibrant oral tradition of African-American folklore.

    L. Mencken published a reminiscence of his Baltimore boyhood in The New Yorker. With this modest beginning, Mencken embarked on what would become the Days trilogy, a long and magnificent adventure in autobiography by America’s greatest journalist. Finding it “always agreeable to ponder upon the adventures of childhood” (as he wrote in his diary), Mencken created more of these masterful novelistic evocations of a bygone era, eventually collected in Happy Days (1940). The book was an immediate critical and popular success, surprising many of its readers with its glimpses of a less curmudgeonly Mencken.Urged by New Yorker editor Harold Ross to send yet more pieces, Mencken moved on from his childhood to revisit the beginnings of his legendary career. Newspaper Days (1941) charts the rise of the brilliant, ambitious young newspaperman, in an astonishingly short time, from cub reporter to managing editor of the Baltimore Herald. Among the book’s memorable episodes are the display of Mencken’s “talent for faking” in his invented dispatches of the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War—accounts that largely turned out to be accurate—and his riveting narrative of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. “In my day a reporter who took an assignment was wholly on his own until he got back to the office, . . . today he tends to become only a homunculus at the end of a telephone wire.”The final volume of the published trilogy, Heathen Days (1943), recounts his varied excursions as one of America’s most famous men, and one who, by his own account, “enjoyed himself immensely,” including his bibulous adventures during Prohibition and his reporting of the 1925 Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution.Until now, however, the story told in Mencken’s beloved Days books has been incomplete. In the 1940s, Mencken began making extensive notes about the published books, commenting on what he had written and adding new material—but stipulating that these writings were not to be made public until twenty-five years after his death. Days Revisited presents more than two hundred pages of this material for the first time. Commentaries are keyed to the main text they gloss with subtle marks in the margin (the volume includes two ribbons to allow readers to flip back to the notes), and they are supplemented by rare photographs, many taken by Mencken himself. Here is Mencken’s classic autobiography as it has never been seen before.

    Through a series of readings in the work of the decisive triumvirate of Victorian fiction, Dickens, Trollope and Wilkie Collins, Miller investigates the novel as an oblique form of social control.

    Journalist, essayist, reviewer, playwright, and novelist, Robertson Davies has not only been a leading figure in Canadian literature since World War II, but, since the publication of Fifth Business in 1970, he has become known throughout the world.Conversations with Robertson Davies will be of interest both to the student of Canadian literature and culture and to the scholar examining Davies's plays and novels as well as to the general reader who would like to know more about the awesome man behind the Salterton and Deptford trilogies, What's Bred in the Bone, and The Lyre of Orpheus.A majority of this anthology of twenty-eight interviews has never before appeared in print. Along with these previously unpublished interviews, the reader finds a selection of the best print interviews: Tom Harpur of the Toronto Star proves Davies's spiritual beliefs, Ann Saddlemyer looks into his dreams, and author Terence M. Green questions Davies on the supernatural.

    Laura Ingalls Wi

    

    With its horrific combination of robbery, arson, torture, murder, and swift and bloody raids on farms and settlements, the conflict approached total war, engulfing the whole populace and challenging any notion of civility. Michael Fellman's Inside War captures the conflict from inside, drawing on a wealth of first-hand evidence, including letters, diaries, military reports, court-martial transcripts, depositions, and newspaper accounts. He gives us a clear picture of the ideological, social, and economic forces that divided the people and launched the conflict. Along with depicting how both Confederate and Union officials used the guerrilla fighters and their tactics to their own advantage, Fellman describes how ordinary civilian men and women struggled to survive amidst the random terror perpetuated by both sides; what drove the combatants themselves to commit atrocities and vicious acts of vengeance; and how the legend of Jesse James arose from this brutal episode in the American Civil War.

    These are just a few of Willie Dixon's contributions to blues, R&B, and rock'n'roll—songs performed by artists as varied as the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, ZZ Top, the Doors, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Megadeth, Eric Clapton, Let Zepplin, Tesla, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jeff Healey.I Am the Blues captures Willie Dixon's inimitable voice and character as he tells his life story: the segregation of Visksburg Mississippi, where Dixon grew up; the prison farm from which he escaped and then hoboed his way north as a teenager; his equal-rights-based draft refusal in 1942; his work—as songwriter bassist, producer, and arranger—with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry which shaped the definitive Chicago blues sound of Chess Records; and his legal battles to recapture the rights to his historic catalog of songs.

    2 maps.

    Poems deal with children, the past, parenthood, freedom, violence, poets, and travel.

    Prepared during the artist's lifetime and with his co-operation, it is described as an intimate look at the man behind the silkscreened image.

    Hugo Award Winner

    

    But it was enough to establish a reputation as one of the 20th century's most original fiction writers.

    He answers questions such as how do organizations function and structure themselves?, how do their power relationships develop and their goals form? and by what processes do managers make important strategic decisions?. He shows how the elements for successful business strategy is rarely born in solitary contemplation suggesting that they often come together in the heat of battle.

    annexation of Texas, ended with the military occupation of Mexico City by General Winfield Scott. In the subsequent treaty, the United States gained territory that would become California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. In this highly readable account, John S.D. Eisenhower provides a comprehensive survey of this frequently overlooked war.

    Unwell for a long time herself, Alison sets up a doll hospital where she can help others, and eventually goes into the hospital herself for an experimental treatment that might cure her once and for all.

    Ready to ship...(A4

    "A novel of impressive artistry and power." The Washington PostCaught in the web of history, generations of an African-American family play out their parts on a world stage that constantly changes, protected always by the love of one another, which never will.

    Her analysis of how human communities are related to their environment opens a perspective that goes beyond overt changes in the landscape. Merchant brings to light the dense network of links between the human realm of economic regimes, social structure, and gender relations, as they are conditioned by a dominant worldview, and the ecological realm of plant and animal life. Thus we see how the integration of the Indians with their natural world was shattered by Europeans who engaged in exhaustive methods of hunting, trapping, and logging for the market and in widespread subsistence farming. The resulting colonial ecological revolution was to hold sway until roughly the time of American independence, when the onset of industrialization and increasing urbanization brought about the capitalist ecological revolution. By the late nineteenth century, Merchant argues, New England had become a society that viewed the whole ecosphere as an arena for human domination. One can see in New England a mirror of the world, she says. What took place there between 1600 and 1850 was a greatly accelerated recapitulation of the evolutionary ecological changes that had occurred in Europe over a span of 2,500 years.

    The Silent Brotherhood attracted seemingly average citizens with their call for pride in race, family, and religion and their mission to save white, Christian America from a communist conspiracy. Here is how they became criminals and assassins in their effort to establish an Aryan homeland. 8-page photo insert.

    Best known in recent years for producing U2's sensational albums, Eno began his career as a synthesizer player for Roxy Music. He has since released many solo albums, both rock and ambient, written music for film and television soundtracks, and collaborated with David Bowie, David Byrne, Robert Fripp, and classical and experimental composers. His pioneering ambient sound has been enormously influential, and without him today's rock would have a decidedly different sound. Drawing on Eno's own words to examine his influences and ideas, this book—featuring a new afterword and an updated discography and bibliography—will long remain provocative and definitive.

    Learn about the Depression Era, how Grandma cooked, and enjoy simple, basic cooking! This book commemorates an era that will never be forgotten, with over 450 back-to-the-basics recipes, household hints, a spice guide and some period poetry.

    His bold conclusion is that Lee's army was a better army--not just one with a better high command.

    all rendered in the style of the 19th century steel engraving, much after the manner of a dated zoology text.

    "Filled with insights into an enigma" ("USA Today"), "An Invisible Spectator" chronicles Paul Bowles's life and work--interwoven with vivid depictions of the writer's intimates, including Truman Capote, Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs.

    A taut, convoluted plot and imaginative direction made the independent release a word-of-mouth hit and established the Coen brothers' reputation for originality. Actors John Getz, Frances McDormand, and Dan Hedaya appear in the story in which a woman commits adultery, and her enraged husband hires a killer for revenge. Blackmail, violence, and mistaken assumptions lead to an edgy, exhilarating climax.

    Cain hammered high art out of the crude matter of betrayal, bloodshed, and perversity.

    He only agreed to make the trip out there because his younger brother needed his help--desperadoes were aiming to rob him of the precious gold he'd taken from his mining stake in the mountains. When the feisty half-breed boy he hired as a tracker saved his life in a barroom brawl, Chance was grateful-but that was all. Then Chance decided to throw young Rori into the river for a bath and he got a big surprise: this was no boy! Dazzled by her raven tresses, her silken copper-colored skin, her luscious curves under the wet buckskin, he was no longer in such a hurry to get his trip over with. Rori's savage beauty was rarer than any gold, and he knew he must possess her.SHE WANTED ALL OF HIMAurora's grandfather brought the orphan half-breed up to be tough and independent. Although he dressed her as a boy to keep away men's advances, underneath Rori was all woman. The first time she set eyes on handsome Chance Broderick, she almost fainted with desire, but she wasn't about to give in to her longing for the white man's kisses. Shed do her job, take his money, and then forget the arrogant Easterner. Only once she saw him bathing in the stream, she knew she could not disguise her passion. She longed to be a prisoner of his strong embrace, to feel the hardness of his flesh against her own soft curves, and then to spend the rest of her life in one long, ardent ARIZONA CARESS.

    It was first published in 1946. Route 66 is part of American history now, and this guide is useful for those who wish to follow the old road in lieu of driving on the interstate highways that have replaced it.The book is divided into nine sections, corresponding to the journeys between stops by the average motorist. In addition, this structure makes the book useful to the traveler who wishes to follow only part of old US 66. Rittenhouse includes altitude and 1940 population figures for each town, with information on reliable garages, tourist courts (the forerunner's of today's motels), and other local attractions.This fascinating piece of Americana recalls a day before the arrival of franchised restaurants and hotels, when travel still held some surprises. Anyone driving in the West or recalling a trip in the good old days will enjoy it.

    A collection of plays.

    The rhymes included here are almost all previously unpublished and they include unusual versions of known nursery rhymes, versions used by the Opies themselves or rhymes sent to them by people who wanted them saved and recorded.In this remarkable book, lighthearted verses are followed by magical, mystifying or romantic ones. The charming diversity of these rhymes is matched only by the inventiveness of the artists, who have illustrated them superbly. Here, then, is a book that families will read together, incorporate into their common experience, and, above all, cherish.

    Each of the 12 volumes in this series includes lively, informative text--complete with detailed itineraries--color illustrations, including photos, historic paintings, and etchings; and site information that includes location, visiting hours, phone numbers, and information on fees.

    His range extends from Matthew Arnold to Tom Wolfe, from George Santayana to S.J. Perelman.

    

    From Indiana to British Columbia, from Arkansas to Texas, from Utah to Mexico, he was part of the grand hobo tradition that has all but passed away from American life.He camped in hobo jungles, slept under bridges and in sand houses at railroad yards, ate rattlesnake meat, fresh California grapes, and fish speared by the Indians of the Northwest. He quickly learned both the beauty and the dangers of his chosen way of life. One lesson learned early on was that there are distinct differences among hoboes, tramps, and bums. As the all-time king of hoboes, Jeff Davis, used to say, "Hoboes will work, tramps won't, and bums can't."Tales of an American Hobo is a lasting legacy to conventional society, teaching about a bygone era of American history and a rare breed of humanity who chose to live by the rails and on the road.

    

    Responding to the lure of these great couture houses, many clients patronized two or even all three, lavishing money on clothes and expecting lavish clothes in return. The House of Worth was the workshop of a family obsessed with the uses of incredibly rich French silks. The fabrics chosen for Worth's gowns and wraps were the most luxurious -- the sort that glimmer under gaslight. Designs from the House of Doucet reflect that family's long association with linens and laces, coupled with Jacques Doucet's own taste for eighteenth-century fashion., Emile Pingat's creations represent the very epitome of haute couture -- exquisit design and flawless execution -- and, like those of Worth, show an adeptness at taking an historical prototype and making it over in keeping with the styles of his own time. Here is an enchanting survey of fin de siecle couture, with 52 color reproductions of the most sumptuous gowns. It accompanies a major exhibition at The Brooklyn Museum, drawn from the Museum's own extensive costume collection and from museums around the world. Elizabeth Ann Coleman brilliantly discusses and compares the designs, fabrics, and clients of Worth, Doucet and Pingat, setting the work of the three couture houses in a larger social and cultural context and illuminating the complex role that fashion has always played in society. With 228 illustrations, 52 in color

    32 pages of black-and-white photos.

    Percival

    The essays are presented thematically and include pieces on southern history; significant but neglected historical figures; historiography; the connection between historical problems and contemporary issues; and the public role of the historian.Collectively these essays reveal Franklin as a man who has exhibited immense courage and intellectual independence in the face of cultural and social bias, a scholar who has set the tone and direction for twentieth-century African-American studies, and a writer whose insistence on balance and truth has inspired two generations of historians.

    Seven illustration Plates of Balthus' Paintings. 90 pages. 6 x 8.8 inches. The Echo Press, New York, 1989.

    The Murchisons, an intimate portrait of the real-life Ewings of "Dallas," is the tragic and true story of their ambition and genius, the greed, power and pride.

    In Misterioso, set on the last Sunday of August 1982, an encyclopedic survey is made of all the people, places, and objects from the first two novels. Beginning and ending at an A & P supermarket, the novel spontaneously generates out of the store's rack of "magazines which promise stories of action," a trashery of ludicrous and perverse exploits and ads well suited to the actions of the novel's large cast of ludicrous and perverse characters and the trashy culture they inhabit. All hope of discovering the truth behind the apparent death of Sheila Henry (in Odd Number) is finally abandoned in this hilarious attempt to organize the facts, a task made hopeless by new information that contains further facts and incidents, scenarios and conversations, as isolate, mysterious, and ambiguous as ever. The charactersdespite the candor of their presentationremain unknowable. A masquerade of the substantive, Misterioso is a comic inquiry into details that are, at once, revelatory and enigmatic, and concludes a major fiction series of the 1980s.

    Now, for the first time, all of Jeffers' completed poems, both published and unpublished, are presented in a single, comprehensive, and textually authoritative edition.The first three volumes of this four-volume work, will present chronologically all of Jeffers' published work from 1920 to 1963. The present volume consists of poems written between 1928 and 1938—the narratives Dear Judes, Thurso's Landing, Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Solstice, and Such Counsels You Gave to Me, as well as shorter verse dramas and lyric poems.

    Her stories and novels embrace life there in the early 1900's as no other author's works have done. Unabridged.