Regarded as a titanic artistic and aesthetic achievement, the influential literary magazine The Dial published most of the great modernist writers, artists, and critics of its day. As publisher and editor of The Dial from 1920 to 1926, Scofield Thayer was gatekeeper and guide for the movement. His editorial curation introduced the ideas of literary modernism to America and gave American artists a new audience in Europe. In The Tortured Life of Scofield Thayer James Dempsey looks beyond the public figure best known for publishing the work of William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings, and Marianne Moore to reveal a paradoxical man fraught with indecisions and insatiable appetites, and deeply conflicted about the artistic movement to which he was benefactor and patron. Thayer suffered from schizophrenia and faded from public life upon his resignation from The Dial. His struggle with mental illness and his controversial personal life led his guardians to prohibit anything of a personal nature from appearing in previous biographies. The story of Thayer's unmoored and peripatetic life, which in many ways mirrored the cosmopolitan rootlessness of modernism, has never been fully told until now.

This collection represents some of the best recent critical writing on Edmund Spenser, a major Renaissance English poet. The essays cover the whole of Spensers work, from early literary experiments such as The Shepeardes Calendar, to his unfinished crowning work,The Fairie Queene. The introduction provides an overview of critical responses to Spenser, setting his work and the debates which it has generated in their perspective contexts: new historicist, post-structural, psychoanalytic and feminist. His study also covers the critical responses of leading British, Irish and American scholars.

This is an original, full length biography of Britain's first twentieth-century black feminist - Una Marson - poet, playwright, and social activist and BBC broadcaster. Una Marson is recognised today as the first major woman poet of the Caribbean and as a significant forerunner of contemporary black writers; her story throws light on the problems facing politicised black artists. In challenging definitions of 'race' and 'gender' in her political and creative work, she forged a valiant path for later black feminists. Her enormous social and cultural contributions to the Caribbean and Britain have, until now, remained hidden in archives and memoirs around the world. Based on extensive research and oral testimony, this biography embraces postcolonial realities and promise, and is a major contribution to British cultural history. -- .

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) lived a richly imaginative life that he expressed in his poems. The Whole Harmonium presents Stevens within the living context of his times and as the creator of a poetry that continues to shape how we understand and define ourselves. A lawyer who rose to become an insurance-company vice president, Stevens composed brilliant poems on long walks to work and at other stolen moments. His first book of poems, Harmonium, published when he was forty-four, drew on his profound understanding of Modernism to create a distinctive and inimitable American idiom. Over time he became acquainted with peers such as Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams, but his personal style remained unique. The complexity of Stevens's poetry rests on emotional, philosophical, and linguistic tensions that thread their way intricately through his poems. And while he can be challenging to understand, Stevens has proven time and again to be one of the most richly rewarding poets to read.

"Parties are the nightly ritual of sophisticated society. I find it fascinating that Truman Capote's famous Black and White Ball at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1966 has become one of those legendary parties that exemplifies the ritual as a part of social and literary history. How beautifully Bedorah Davis has recounted the creation and execution of Truman's ball in minute and dishy detail. The ball marked the very peak of his dazzling literary career and the beginning of the literary downfall from which he never recovered. I knew Truman, and I was riveted by Davis's book."
--Dominick Dunne, author of "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles and An Inconvenient Woman"

"Deborah Davis captures a crystal moment in time with all the elegance and irony it deserves. A black and white truffle of a book--delicious."
--Jane Stanton Hitchcock, author of "One Dangerous Lady and Social Crimes"

"In this extraordinary book, Deborah Davis tells the story of how international society and the 1960s converged at the Plaza Hotel at the party of the century. It was a moment in time and Davis captures the excitement in delicious detail. I loved this book."
--Ina Garten, author of the "Barefoot Contessa" cookbooks

"Davis shines a kaleidoscopically colorful light on the Black and White Ball, a cultural happening that defined the time. Immersing oneself in these pages is the next best thing to being there."
--Jill Kargman, coauthor of "The Right Address and Wolves in Chic Clothing"

"One of the best reads of the season will be Deborah Davis's Party of the Century, an encyclopedic look at the famous Black and White Ball."
--Billy Norwich, "Vogue"

Throughout his life, James Boswell struggled to fashion a clear account of himself, but try as he might, he could not reconcile the truths of his era with those of his religious upbringing. Boswell's Enlightenment examines the conflicting credos of reason and faith, progress and tradition that pulled Boswell, like so many eighteenth-century Europeans, in opposing directions. In the end, the life of the man best known for writing Samuel Johnson's biography was something of a patchwork affair. As Johnson himself understood: "That creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BOSWELL." Few periods in Boswell's life better crystallize this internal turmoil than 1763-1765, the years of his Grand Tour and the focus of Robert Zaretsky's thrilling intellectual adventure. From the moment Boswell sailed for Holland from the port of Harwich, leaving behind on the beach his newly made friend Dr. Johnson, to his return to Dover from Calais a year and a half later, the young Scot was intent on not just touring historic and religious sites but also canvassing the views of the greatest thinkers of the age. In his relentless quizzing of Voltaire and Rousseau, Hume and Johnson, Paoli and Wilkes on topics concerning faith, the soul, and death, he was not merely a celebrity-seeker but-for want of a better term-a truth-seeker. Zaretsky reveals a life more complex and compelling than suggested by the label "Johnson's biographer," and one that 250 years later registers our own variations of mind.

This is an imaginative work of literary criticism. Thirteen scholars have selected a wide variety of Joseph Brodsky's poems written between 1970 and 1994 for detailed discussion in the context of his whole output. The choice of poems reflects Brodsky's diversity of themes and devices. Together they offer a perspective on one of the most original and profound modern poets. This collection should fulfil the often-expressed need for a comprehensive approach to the study of Brodsky's poetry, which is linguistically as well as intellectually demanding.

Katherine Mansfield is New Zealands most famous author and was arguably the finest short-story writer of her day. This chronology provides a synopsis of her first years in New Zealand and then England and, from 1906, a more detailed account of her last months in her native country, her coming to Europe, meeting Middleton Murry, publishing her stories and finally (before her death at the age of 34) desperately seeeking a cure for her tuberculosis as she continued to write.

In the winter of 2009, Rachel Cusk's marriage of ten years came to an end. Candid and revelatory, Aftermath chronicles the perilous journey as the author redefines herself and creates a new version of family life for her daughters.

There is a problem for the writer who decides to write his or her autobiography; and it is one that I have had to make a decision about. I know who I am when I am being myself in my day to day existence; I know who I am when I am writing and publishing my work. But who am I when the two collide? In fact, whose name will appear on the cover? Finally, I decided that I must emerge from my concealing curtain-my pen-name-and face the fact that Barbara Yates Rothwell could not have written this 'Fragment' without Hebe Morgan. So I am happy to combine my two lives for once, and let the reader in on the secret. I have been Hebe for 85 years; and I have been Barbara for about 50 of those years. The two of us get on quite well: Hebe makes the beds and the coffee while Barbara gets to the computer. Hebe was married for 59 years to Dr Derek Moore Morgan, and looked after the family; Barbara, meanwhile, managed to establish her writing career. Looking back, I think both of me were quite successful at what we took on You may wonder what the point is in having a pen-name. People have often asked me this, and some have thought it was not sensible to try to make a name for oneself as a writer by using another name. The reasons will be as many as the people who choose to do this. In my case, I found it released me from thinking too conventionally. As we now say, it permitted me to think 'outside the square'. Being a wife and mother is wonderful, but it can tend to make one think along very straight lines. A fiction writer needs to be able think freely, to analyse characters, to imagine lives that perhaps have nothing to do with the author's daily existence. I found it very helpful. However you think of me, whichever hat I wear for you, I hope you will enjoy journeying with me for a little while as I explore my own 'fragment of life'.

"Island Dreams" is a true story of the wonders of British Columbia's northern Gulf Islands. Swimming in the middle of the Strait of Georgia, these enchanting isles are serenaded by whales and surrounded by crushing depths; caressed by languorous calms and brutalized by terrifying storms.

"Island Dreams" tells of one family's move to Olsen Island, one of the uninhabited gems nestled close by the isle of Lasqueti. Their story tacks through the wild beauty of these islands and dives on glass sponge reefs shimmering in the surrounding depths. It's an exploration of earthquake faults deep below Vancouver Island and the birth of Qualicum winds.

"Island Dreams" also chronicles the natural and anthropological history of the islands-their formation, the glaciers that scoured them, and the first plants and animals that appeared there. It follows the first migrating Asians who skiffed down the coast, and explores the First Nations villages their ancestors founded. The robust cast of characters includes Sisters Islands light keepers and depression-era fishermen who beach-combed lumber for their island fishing shacks.

"Island Dreams" is also a tale of Lasqueti Island, held out of time by the special folks who make it their home. It is a story of islanders, and of the wind and waves that forge them into believers in the redemptive power of a wild environment.

Set against the lush backdrop of rural El Salvador at the turn of the century, Claudia Lars' richly evocative memoir is a simple, yet profound tribute to the folklore, customs, and traditions of her people. It is a lyrical exaltation of her land's beauty, brimming with warm, vibrant imagery. Born to an Irish-American father and a Salvadoran mother, Lars takes readers on an enchanting journey that celebrates her dual heritage and reveals, with innocence and charm, the gradual self-awareness of a child who, from a very young age, was endowed with the soul of a poet.

"Land of Childhood" was first published in El Salvador in 1958. Currently in its seventeenth edition, it is an award-winning book that has become a beloved national classic as well as required reading for students in secondary schools and university classrooms.

Newly revised and enlarged, the second edition of A Conrad Chronology draws upon a rich range of published and unpublished materials. It offers a detailed factual record of Joseph Conrad's unfolding life as seaman and writer as well as tracing the compositional and publication history of his major works.

Imagine sitting with an esteemed writer on his or her front porch somewhere in the world and swapping life stories. Dr. Wayne Flynt got the opportunity to do just this with Nelle Harper Lee. In a friendship that blossomed over a dozen years starting when Lee relocated back to Alabama after having had a stroke, Flynt and his wife Dartie became regular visitors at the assisted living facility that was Lee's new home. And there the conversation began. It began where it always begins with Southern storytellers, with an invitation to "Come in, sit down, and stay a while." The stories exchanged ranged widely over the topics of Alabama history, Alabama folklore, family genealogy, and American literature, of course. On the way from beginning to end there were many detours: talks about Huntingdon College; The University of Alabama; New York City; the United Kingdom; Garden City, Kansas; and Mobile, Alabama, to name just a few. Wayne and his wife were often joined by Alice Lee, the oldest Lee sister, a living encyclopedia on the subject of family genealogy, and middle sister Louise Lee Conner. The hours spent visiting, in intimate closeness, are still cherished by Wayne Flynt. They yielded revelations large and small, which have been shaped into Afternoons with Harper Lee. Part memoir, part biography, this book offers a unique window into the life and mind and preoccupations of one of America's best-loved writers. Flynt and Harper Lee and her sisters learned a great deal from each other, and though this is not a history book, their shared interest in Alabama and its history made this extraordinary work possible.

This largely chronological study of Iris Murdoch's literary life begins with her fledgling publications at Badminton School and Oxford, and her Irish heritage. It moves through the novels of the next four decades and concludes with an account of the biographical, critical and media attention given to her life and work since her death in 1999.

A search for roots and identity has rarely been captured with such illegible], unusual insight, and surprising humor as in this memoir of heartbreak and hope. Today a distinguished American poet; Colette Inez first came to the United States when she was eight years old, as an illegible] Belgian orphan illegible] by two complete strangers. Growing up in post World War II America, a stranger to her own past, she survived a illegible] adolescence and an increasingly illegible] abusive adoptive family by learning to define her single solace, a developing passion for literature. illegible] possible illegible] in the 1950s, Inez set out to prove her claim to U.S. citizenship. The result, as she recounts in this eloquent, wrenching memoir, would span two illegible], a trail of discovery, and a buried secret, one that ultimately allowed Inez to reconcile her past and present and finally come of age as an artist.

William Wordsworth: Interviews and Recollections collects and reprints, on a generous scale, selections from the texts of both immediately recorded opinions and characterizations that were written down in later years. Represented in this anthology are 22 of Wordsworth's most important contemporaries. With the exception of Shelley, they all knew Wordsworth personally. It was difficult, and perhaps impossible, for any of them to write neutrally or objectively about the impression that Wordsworth made on them. Their comments make for lively reading.

This work offers a peer reviewed account of Defoe's birth and upbringing from 1644 and how he kept the first 36 years of his life a secret and discusses the effects of a vastly different life on all critical understandings of his writing. It is fundamental to any study of Daniel Defoe.