In Rural Hours, Harriet Baker tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the countryside and was forever changed by it. We encounter them at quiet moments – pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill; jotting down a recipe; or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly, we start to see transformations unfold: Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann emerge before us as the passionate, visionary writers we know them to be.

Following long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment, each of Baker's subjects is invigorated by new landscapes, and the daily trials and small pleasures of making a home; slowly, they embark on new experiments in form, in feeling and in living that would resonate throughout the rest of their lives. In the country, each woman finds her path: to convalescence and recovery; to sexual and political awakening; and, above all, to personal freedom and creative flourishing.

In graceful, fluid prose, Baker vividly recreates these overlooked episodes, revealing how ‘rural hours’ defined the lives of three pioneering writers. In the end, she shows, their example is an invitation to us all: to recognize the radical and creative potential of rural places, and find new enchantment in the rituals of each day.

As an American comic book writer, editor, and businessman, Jim Shooter (b. 1952) remains among the most important figures in the history of the medium. Starting in 1966 at the age of fourteen, Shooter, as the young protege of verbally abusive DC editor Mort Weisinger, helped introduce themes and character development more commonly associated with DC competitor Marvel Comics. Shooter created several characters for the Legion of Super-Heroes, introduced Superman's villain the Parasite, and jointly devised the first race between the Flash and Superman. When he later ascended to editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, the company, indeed the medium as a whole, was moribund. Yet by the time Shooter left the company a mere decade later, the industry had again achieved considerable commercial viability, with Marveldominating the market. Shooter enjoyed many successes during his tenure, such as Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men, Byrne's work on the Fantastic Four, Frank Miller's Daredevil stories, Walt Simonson's crafting of Norse mythology in Thor, and Roger Stern's runs on Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as his own successes writing Secret Wars and Secret Wars II. After a rift at Marvel, Shooter then helped lead Valiant Comics into one of the most iconic comic book companies of the 1990s, before moving to start-up companies Defiant andBroadway Comics. Interviews collected in this book span Shooter's career. Included here is a 1969 interview that shows a restless teenager; the 1973 interview that returned Shooter to comics; a discussion from 1980 during his pinnacle at Marvel; and two conversations from his time at Valiant and Defiant Comics. At the close, anextensive, original interview encompasses Shooter's full career.

Tony Narducci fell in love with Tennessee Williams's poetry when he was fourteen years old. For Narducci, Williams was the genius who redefined theater in America, most accomplished modern playwright, and perhaps one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. So when thirty-three-year-old Narducci met Williams at a Key West bar in February 1982, the encounter was more than coincidence. It was destiny.

In In the Frightened Heart of Me, Narducci narrates the story of how, after that first meeting, he was drawn deep into Williams's life and work-a journey that would change Narducci's life in every way. Companions until Williams's death in February 1983, this biography shares how their time together was an odyssey of adventure, emotional entanglement, and insight.

While providing a glimpse into the Key West of the early 1980s, In the Frightened Heart of Me blends the events and sorrows of Williams's last year on earth with Narducci's life-changing story and the effects of their relationship. It tells how 1983 was the year Narducci evolved from a floundering, young aspiring artist to a focused business entrepreneur. It was the year he watched his literary hero, a titan of literature, become a frightened, dying old man-and the year AIDS took the lives of many of his loved ones. It was the year that defined his life.

Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after an actual historical figure, and it has become a dominant literary form over the last 35 years. What has not yet been scholarly acknowledged or documented is that the Irish played a crucial role in the origins, evolution, rise, and now dominance of biofiction. Michael Lackey first examines the groundbreaking biofictions that Oscar Wilde and George Moore authored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the best biographical novels about Wilde (by Peter Ackroyd and Colm Toibin). He then focuses on contemporary authors of biofiction (Sabina Murray, Graham Shelby, Anne Enright, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who Lackey has interviewed for this work) who use the lives of prominent Irish figures (Roger Casement and Eliza Lynch) to explore the challenges of seizing and securing a life-promoting form of agency within a colonial and patriarchal context. In conclusion, Lackey briefly analyzes biographical novels by Peter Carey and Mary Morrissy to illustrate why agency is of central importance for the Irish, and why that focus mandated the rise of the biographical novel, a literary form that mirrors the constructed Irish interior.

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. LGBT Studies. THE END OF THE SHERRY recounts what happens to a young American who finds himself abandoned in southern Spain in 1965 with a dog and a dubious car, who stumbles into work as a nightclub pianist and stays for three improbable years. His own adventures blossom into a portrait of provincial Spain toward the end of the Franco dictatorship--bleakness that breaks into unexpected hilarity even as the author discovers his calling as a person and a writer. His return to Spain after the death of Franco puts it all into perspective.

Left off her company's fifth anniversary tribute but described by Thomas Mann as "the soul of the firm," Blanche Knopf began her career when she founded Alfred A. Knopf with her husband in 1915. With her finger on the pulse of a rapidly changing culture, Blanche quickly became a driving force behind the firm. A conduit to the literature of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, Blanche also legitimized the hard- boiled detective fiction of writers such as Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler; signed and nurtured literary authors like Willa Cather, Elizabeth Bowen, and Muriel Spark; acquired momentous works of journalism by John Hersey and William Shirer; and introduced American readers to Albert Camus, Andre Gide, and Simone de Beauvoir, giving these French writers the benefit of her consummate editorial taste. As Knopf celebrates its centennial, Laura Claridge looks back at the firm's beginnings and the dynamic woman who helped to define American letters for the twentieth century. Drawing on a vast cache of papers, Claridge also captures Blanche's "witty, loyal, and amusing" personality, and her charged yet oddly loving relationship with her husband. An intimate and often surprising biography, The Lady with the Borzoi is the story of an ambitious, seductive, and impossibly hardworking woman who was determined not to be overlooked or easily categorised.

Jane Was Here is a whimsical, illustrated guide to Jane Austen's England – from the settings in her novels and the scenes in the wildly popular television and film adaptations, to her homes and other important locations throughout her own life.

Discover the stately homes of Basildon Park and Ham House and the lush landscapes of Stourhead and Stanage Edge. Tread in Jane's footsteps as you explore her school in the old gatehouse of the ruined Reading Abbey; her perfectly-preserved home in her Chawton cottage, where she spent the last eight years of her life; or her final resting place in Winchester Cathedral.

Whether you want to embark on a real Austenian pilgrimage of your own, or experience the journey from the comfort of your own living room, Jane Was Here will take you – with a tone as wry as Jane herself's – on an enchanting adventure through the ups and downs of the world of Jane Austen. Publishing in time for the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth, this book is the perfect companion for any Austenophile looking for a novel way to celebrate.

'Tense and intimate... an education.' Geoff Dyer 'Written with sensitivity and humanity... a remarkable insight into prison life.' Amanda Brown 'Authentic, fascinating and deeply moving.' Terry Waite 'Enriching, sobering and at times heartrending... a wonder' Lenny Henry __________ Can someone in prison be more free than someone outside? Would we ever be good if we never felt shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness? Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. Every day he has conversations with people inside about their lives, discusses their ideas and feelings, and listens as they explore new ways to think about their situation. When Andy goes behind bars, he also confronts his inherited trauma: his father, uncle and brother all spent time in prison. While Andy has built a different life for himself, he still fears that their fate will also be his. As he discusses pressing questions of truth, identity and hope with his students, he searches for his own form of freedom too. Moving, sympathetic, wise and frequently funny, The Life Inside is an elegantly written and unforgettable book. Through a blend of memoir, storytelling and gentle philosophical questioning, it offers a new insight into our stretched justice system, our failing prisons and the complex lives being lived inside. __________ 'Strives with humour and compassion to understand the phenomenon of prison' Sydney Review of Books 'A fascinating and enlightening journey... A legitimate page-turner' 3AM

When John Joseph Mathews (1894-1979) began his career as a writer in the 1930s, he was one of only a small number of Native American authors writing for a national audience. Today he is widely recognized as a founder and shaper of twentieth-century Native American literature. Twenty Thousand Mornings is Mathews's intimate chronicle of his formative years. Written in 1965-67 but only recently discovered, this work captures Osage life in pre-statehood Oklahoma and recounts many remarkable events in early-twentieth-century history. Born in Pawhuska, Osage Nation, Mathews was the only surviving son of a mixed-blood Osage father and a French-American mother. Within these pages he lovingly depicts his close relationships with family members and friends. Yet always drawn to solitude and the natural world, he wanders the Osage Hills in search of tranquil swimming holes - and new adventures. Overturning misguided critical attempts to confine Mathews to either Indian or white identity, Twenty Thousand Mornings shows him as a young man of his time. He goes to dances and movies, attends the brand-new University of Oklahoma, and joins the Air Service as a flight instructor during World War I - spawning a lifelong fascination with aviation. His accounts of wartime experiences include unforgettable descriptions of his first solo flight and growing skill in night-flying. Eventually Mathews gives up piloting to become a student again, this time at Oxford University, where he begins to mature as an intellectual. In her insightful introduction and explanatory notes, Susan Kalter places Mathews's work in the context of his life and career as a novelist, historian, naturalist, and scholar. Kalter draws on his unpublished diaries, revealing aspects of his personal life that have previously been misunderstood. In addressing the significance of this posthumous work, she posits that Twenty Thousand Mornings will challenge, defy, and perhaps redefine studies of American Indian autobiography.

Novelist, poet, playwright, and short story writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest writer, although his work is still too little read outside his native country. In this first comprehensive English-language examination of Machado since Helen Caldwell's seminal 1970 study, K. David Jackson reveals Machado de Assis as an important world author, one of the inventors of literary modernism whose writings profoundly influenced some of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century, including Jose Saramago, Carlos Fuentes, and Donald Barthelme. Jackson introduces a hitherto unknown Machado de Assis to readers, illuminating the remarkable life, work, and legacy of the genius whom Susan Sontag called "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America" and whom Allen Ginsberg hailed as "another Kafka." Philip Roth has said of him that "like Beckett, he is ironic about suffering." And Harold Bloom has remarked of Machado that "he's funny as hell."

This fascinating book is a must-Read for any Twain enthusiast" - Andy Borowitz In fall 1891, Mark Twain headed for Berlin, the "newest city I have ever seen," as America's foremost humorist wrote; accompanied by his wife, Olivia, and their three daughters. Twain, a "Yankee from head to toe," according to the Berlin press, conspired with diplomats, frequented the famed salons, had breakfast with duchesses, and dined with the emperor. He also suffered an "organized dog-choir club," at his first address, which he deemed a "rag-picker's paradise," picked a fight with the police, who made him look under his maid's petticoats, was abused by a porter, got lost on streetcars, was nearly struck down by pneumonia, and witnessed a proletarian uprising right in front of his hotel on Unter den Linden. Twain penned articles about his everyday life and also began a novel about lonely Prussian princess Wilhelmina von Preussen-unpublished until now, like many of his Berlin stories. These are assembled for the first time in this book, along with a riveting account of Twain's foray in the German capital, by Andreas Austilat. Berlinica offers English-language books from Berlin, German; fiction, non-fiction, travel guides, history about the Wall and the Third Reich, Jewish life, art, architecture and photography, as well as books about nightlife, cookbooks, and maps. It also offers documentaries and feature films on DVD, as well as music CDs. Berlinica caters to history buffs, Americans of German heritage, travelers, and artists and young people who love the cutting-edge city in the heart of Europe. Berlinica's current and upcoming titles include "Berlin Berlin Dispatches from the Weimar Republic," by Kurt Tucholsky, "Jews in Berlin, by Andreas Nachama, Julius H. Schoeps, and Hermann Simon, a comprehensive book on Jewish history and present in the German capital, "Wings of Desire-Angels of Berlin," by Lother Heinke," "The Berlin Wall Today," a full-color guide to the remnants of the Wall, "Wallflower," a novel by New-York-born writer Holly-Jane Rahlens; "Berlin For Free," a guide to everything free in Berlin for the frugal traveler by Monika Maertens; "Berlin in the Cold War," about post-World War II history and the Wall, "The Berlin Cookbook," a full-color collection of traditional German recipes by Rose Marie Donhauser, the music CD "Berlin-mon amour," by chanteuse Adrienne Haan, and two documentaries on DVD, "The Red Orchestra," by Berlin-born artist Stefan Roloff and "The Path to Nuclear Fission," by New York filmmaker Rosemarie Reed.

Die geliefde en gevierde kortverhaalskrywer Hennie Aucamp is op 21 Maart 2014, slegs twee maande na sy 80ste verjaardag oorlede. In hierdie herinneringsboek word verskillende fasette van sy lewe deur familie, vriende en medeskrywers belig. Onder die familielede wat bydraes tot die boek gelewer het, is sy suster Rina wat herinneringe aan hulle kinderjare op die familieplaas Rus-mijn-ziel opdiep en sy neef Inus Aucamp wat meer vertel van die vestiging van die Aucamp-familie in die Stormberge. Die skryfster Margaret Bakkes, wat ook sy kleinniggie is en op 'n buurplaas grootgeword het, vertel hoe sy en Hennie reeds as kinders teenoor mekaar bely het dat hulle wil skryf. Daar is ook bydraes deur Marius en Christiaan Bakkes, wat oor Hennie se belangstelling in die natuur. Daar is besondere opstelle deur medeskrywers Lina Spies, Aletta Lubbe (gebore Aucamp), Danie Botha en Abraham de Vries, terwyl Daniel Hugo en Joan Hambidge gedigte opgedra aan Hennie gelewer het. Die radiopersoonlikhede Monica Breed en Margot Luyt skryf oor Hennie se ruimhartigheid en sy vriend Nico Loubser oor Hennie se laaste dae. Foto’s van Philip de Vos en Marius Bakkes skep 'n visuele beeld van die woordman Aucamp.

A definitive new biography of James Fenimore Cooper, early nineteenth-century master of American popular fiction "It will be the definitive biography and foremost study of Cooper's fiction and nonfiction for the foreseeable future."- Allan Axelrad, California State University, Fullerton American author James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) has been credited with inventing and popularizing a wide variety of genre fiction, including the Western, the spy novel, the high seas adventure tale, and the Revolutionary War romance. America's first crusading novelist, Cooper reminds us that literature is not a cloistered art; rather, it ought to be intimately engaged with the world. In this second volume of his definitive biography, Wayne Franklin concentrates on the latter half of Cooper's life, detailing a period of personal and political controversy, far-ranging international travel, and prolific literary creation. We hear of Cooper's progressive views on race and slavery, his doubts about American expansionism, and his concern about the future prospects of the American Republic, while observing how his groundbreaking career management paved the way for later novelists to make a living through their writing. Franklin offers readers the most comprehensive portrait to date of this underappreciated American literary icon.

In the last couple of decades there has been a surge of interest in Octavio Paz's life and work, and a number of important books have been published on Paz. However, most of these books are of a biographical nature or they examine Paz's role in the various intellectual initiatives he headed in Mexico, specifically the journals he founded. Reality in Movement looks at a wide range of topics of interest in Paz's career, including his engagement with the subversive, adversary strain in Western culture, his meditations on questions of cultural identity and intercultural contact, his dialogue with both leftist and conservative ideological traditions, his interest in feminism and psychoanalysis, as well as his theory of poetry, concluding with a chapter on Octavio Paz as a literary character-a kind of reception study. The book offers a complex and nuanced portrait of Paz as a writer and thinker, as well as an understanding of the era in which he lived. Reality in Movement: Octavio Paz as Essayist and Public Intellectual will appeal to students of Octavio Paz, of Mexican literature more generally, as well as to readers with an interest in the many significant literary, cultural, political and historical topics Paz wrote about over the course of his long career.

This is an introduction to the life and work of Kate Roberts, the most important woman writer ever to have emerged from Wales. It offers a comprehensive account of her life, from her birth into a life of poverty and hardship in the slate-quarrying region of Snowdonia to her death almost a hundred years later in Denbigh; in between, she had attended University, at a time when very few Welsh women did, worked as an impassioned and inspirational teacher in the south Wales valleys, run a major printing press and published the main Welsh national newspaper, Y Faner, helped to found Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, campaigned tirelessly for the Welsh language, challenged gender stereotypes and restrictions in traditional patriarchal Wales, and produced a body of literary work in the Welsh language which makes her rank alongside Saunders Lewis as the greatest Welsh writer of the twentieth century.