The first comprehensive biography of this iconic artist to appear in English. Richly illustrated with 160 photographs. Since her dramatic death at the age of 31 the name Ingrid Jonker has been linked to that of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath - legends who died young. In her first biography to appear in English, the frail figure of Jonker as a child, a young poet, daughter of a prominent politician, wife, mother, mistress of a famous author, lover and rebel is portrayed against the backdrop of revolt against South Africa's policies of censorship and apartheid.

David Foster is the most original, challenging, contradictory, risk-taking and infuriating Australian novelist of his generation. To date he has published twelve novels, three collections of novellas and short stories, two books of poetry, and a collection of essays, with several produced radio plays. Foster writes in an Australian tradition of idiosyncratic satire and comedy that may be traced through the work of Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin, Xavier Herbert and David Ireland. His novels are the most wide-ranging and fearless of the Australian novels that have contributed to the late twentieth-century re-examination of Western ideologies and the literary forms in which they are expressed. In this first critical study of David Foster's works, Professor Susan Lever steers us into penetrating the mysteries of Foster's fiction, and provides guidance to readers willing to approach them. The book examines the contradictory nature of his commitments and interests as expressed mainly in his novels. Each of his works of fiction and poetry in the order of publication (except for The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross and The Pale Blue Crochet Coathanger Cover which are discussed with similar novels) are discussed. The development of Foster's philosophical ideas and technique as a novelist over the 35 years of his writing life to date is followed. The book also examines Foster's letters to Geoffrey Dutton early in his career; his interviews and essays provide some of the background to these novels. The book also furnishes a sense of the Australian context for his work. A brief biography of Foster's early life and a discussion of his approach to satire is also included.

Few people are aware that the true identity of William Shakespeare represents Western Civilization's greatest mystery. Even fewer realize that the commonly accepted authorship by William Shaksper of Stratford-on-Avon, who was illiterate, is a complete hoax manufactured by England's leading politicians, William Cecil and his son, Robert, for personal reasons of greed and power.

The hoax survived largely unscathed until 1920 when J. Thomas Looney's brilliant book, "Shakespeare Identified," plucked Edward de Vere's buried name out of historical obscurity and introduced him to the world as the real Shakespeare. Fighting the astonishing power of conventional wisdom, believers in the de Vere theory have steadily built their case through now hard-to-find scholarly research for the past ninety years.

This anthology series, "Building the Case for Edward de Vere as Shakespeare," salvages fascinating, neglected authorship material which repeatedly and convincingly shows that Edward de Vere was the uniquely creative genius who wrote under the coerced pen name of William Shakespeare.

I have been a fan of the Sherlock Holmes tales since I was given The Long Stories and The Short Stories in 1961. So when I retired twelve years ago I decided that I would compile a book on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The majority of the content is taken from newspaper and magazine articles from 1998-2011 and some book forewords, the greater part containing information which I had never seen or read before.

Walden is one of the best-known non-fiction books ever written by an American. It details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walden was written with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau hoped to isolate himself from society in order to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simplicity and self-reliance were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by Transcendentalist philosophy. This book is full of fascinating musings and reflections. As pertinent and relevant today as it was when it was first written.

Edmund Curll was a notorious figure among the publishers of the early eighteenth century: for his boldness, his lack of scruple, his publication of work without author's consent, and his taste for erotic and scandalous publications. He was in legal trouble on several occasions for piracy and copyright infringement, unauthorized publication of the works of peers, and for seditious, blasphemous, and obscene publications. He stood in the pillory in 1728 for seditious libel. Above all, he was the constant target of the greatest poet and satirist of his age, Alexander Pope, whose work he pirated whenever he could and who responded with direct physical revenge (an emetic slipped into a drink) and persistent malign caricature. The war between Pope and Curll typifies some of the main cultural battles being waged between creativity and business. The story has normally been told from the poet's point of view, though more recently Curll has been celebrated as a kind of literary freedom-fighter; this book, the first full biography of Curll since Ralph Straus's The Unspeakable Curll (1927), seeks to give a balanced and thoroughly-researched account of Curll's career in publishing between 1706 and 1747, untangling the mistakes and misrepresentations that have accrued over the years and restoring a clear sense of perspective to Curll's dealings in the literary marketplace. It examines the full range of Curll's output, including his notable antiquarian series, and uses extensive archive material to detail Curll's legal and other troubles. For the first time, what is known about this strange, interesting, and awkward figure is authoritatively told.

Here at last in paperback is Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed and bestselling book about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. "Teacher Man" is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises of teaching in public high schools. "Teacher Man" shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell a great story as, five days a week, five periods per day, he works to gain the attention and respect of unruly, hormonally charged or indifferent adolescents.

For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation, and in "Teacher Man" the journey to redemption--and literary fame--is an exhilarating adventure.

Drawing on private and published sources, Roger Fagge takes an in-depth look at J.B. Priestley's work, seeking to reclaim him as an important English thinker. Priestley grew up in Bradford, and served on the front line in the First World War, before attending Cambridge and embarking on a career as a writer. A committed radical, he wrote widely for the press, as well as producing autobiographies, social criticism and plays. This work revealed a growing interest in the meaning of Englishness and the start of a long-running relationship with America. Priestley achieved even greater influence during the early years of World War II via his popular BBC radio 'postscripts'. His later career, however, saw his faith in the people give way to a disillusionment with the spread of the Americanised mass society, although his critical response to the latter maintained a perceptive engagement with world. The Vision of J.B. Priestley charts the continuities, strengths and weaknesses in the author's long career, and his vision of an outward looking radical Englishness.

BUT the basin of the Mississippi is the BODY OF THE NATION. All the other parts are but members, important in themselves, yet more important in their relations to this. Exclusive of the Lake basin and of 300,000 square miles in Texas and New Mexico, which in many aspects form a part of it, this basin contains about 1,250,000 square miles. In extent it is the second great valley of the world, being exceeded only by that of the Amazon. The valley of the frozen Obi approaches it in extent; that of La Plata comes next in space, and probably in habitable capacity, having about eight-ninths of its area; then comes that of the Yenisei, with about seven-ninths; the Lena, Amoor, Hoang-ho, Yang-tse-kiang, and Nile, five-ninths; the Ganges, less than one-half; the Indus, less than one-third; the Euphrates, one-fifth; the Rhine, one-fifteenth. It exceeds in extent the whole of Europe, exclusive of Russia, Norway, and Sweden. IT WOULD CONTAIN AUSTRIA FOUR TIMES, GERMANY OR SPAIN FIVE TIMES, FRANCE SIX TIMES, THE BRITISH ISLANDS OR ITALY TEN TIMES. Conceptions formed from the river-basins of Western Europe are rudely shocked when we consider the extent of the valley of the Mississippi; nor are those formed from the sterile basins of the great rivers of Siberia, the lofty plateaus of Central Asia, or the mighty sweep of the swampy Amazon more adequate. Latitude, elevation, and rainfall all combine to render every part of the Mississippi Valley capable of supporting a dense population. AS A DWELLING-PLACE FOR CIVILIZED MAN IT IS BY FAR THE FIRST UPON OUR GLOBE.

Now in paperback, a “refreshing. . . . accessible, engaging, and genuinely hilarious” (Buzzfeed) series of essays―part memoir, part manifesto―that explore coming-of-age and coming out as bisexual while moving toward embracing and celebrating sex without shame

As a boy, Zachary Zane sensed that all was not right when images of his therapist naked popped into his head. He sometimes imagined other people naked, too, and without an explanation why, a deep sense of shame pervaded these thoughts. Though his therapist assured him a little imagination was nothing to be ashamed of, over the years, society told him otherwise.

Boyslut is a memoir-manifesto in which Zane articulates that, even today, we live in a world that shames people for the sex that they have and the sexualities that they inhabit. Through the lens of his bisexuality and much self-described sluttiness, Zane breaks down exactly how this sexual shame negatively impacts the sex and relationships in our lives, and through personal experience, shares how we can unlearn the harmful, entrenched messages that society imparts to us.

From stories of play sessions with a neighbor at age six to the first explorations of Zane’s bisexuality in college, as well as sex-dungeon parties, orgies, and fun with butt plugs, Boyslutis reassuring and often painfully funny, and most potently, it is a testimony that we can all learn to live healthier lives unburdened by stigma.

A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his mother’s idiosyncratic sex life, and his father’s dementia, to the same affectionate scrutiny.

On the surface, David Baddiel’s childhood was fairly standard: a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But David came to realise that his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. David’s detailing of the affair – including a hilarious focus on how his mother turned their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings – leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Niklaus and Erica Jong.

Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his family’s past, his father’s memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his mother’s affair, there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive.

My Family: The Memoir is David Baddiel’s candid examination of his childhood, family and memory offering a twisted love letter to his parents.

In this book John Radner examines the fluctuating, close, and complex friendship enjoyed by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, from the day they met in 1763 to the day when Boswell published his monumental Life of Johnson. Drawing on everything Johnson and Boswell wrote to and about the other, this book charts the psychological currents that flowed between them as they scripted and directed their time together, questioned and advised, confided and held back. It explores the key longings and shifting tensions that distinguished this from each man's other long-term friendships, while it tracks in detail how Johnson and Boswell brought each other to life, challenged and confirmed each other, and used their deepening friendship to define and assess themselves. It tells a story that reaches through its specificity into the dynamics of most sustained friendships, with their breaks and reconnections, their silences and fresh intimacies, their continuities and transformations.

A citizen in The Galacterian Alignment of Space Peoples and Planets, Thyron is an ExtraTerrestrial Titan with a highly evolved soul, but born with a duality disorder. In this parable of the soul's journey towards perfection and rebirth, Thyron must merge his Light and Dark to evolve into a Being spiritually strong enough to lead others towards the Light. Archangel Michael, the Universal Sovereign, orders him into The Shadow Chamber, to force him to look deep into the Darkness within himself. Once he has conquered his own Shadow Self, Michael sends Thyron to meet with the imprisoned Rebel Archangel Lucifer to take down his statement before his Tribunal. What happens next in Thyron's story will leave you wondering not only about your very own existence, but what's secretly happening on Earth right now. It's time to finally reveal the secrets hidden inside the vaults of Universal Magic. Get ready Star Trek and Star Wars fans for the next phase of entertainment, for you are about to meet the extraterrestrials--your cosmic family "Speaking not only as an author, but an avid reader, I haven't had any book hold my attention like Craig's book has. If you liked or loved Avatar, you'll be ecstatic about this book. I can also see this as a great movie. Kudos to you, Craig, for this marvelous book and good luck with its success, although we don't need luck when something is great and this is." -From Foreword by Sylvia Browne www.AutobiographyOfAnET.com

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) was an English writer, physician, and philosopher whose work has inspired everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf to Stephen Jay Gould. In an intellectual adventure like Sarah Bakewell's book about Montaigne, How to Live, Hugh Aldersey-Williams sets off not just to tell the story of Browne's life but to champion his skeptical nature and inquiring mind. Mixing botany, etymology, medicine, and literary history, Aldersey-Williams journeys in his hero's footsteps to introduce us to witches, zealots, natural wonders, and fabulous creatures of Browne's time and ours. We meet Browne the master prose stylist, responsible for introducing hundreds of words into English, including electricity, hallucination, and suicide. Aldersey-Williams reveals how Browne's preoccupations-how to disabuse the credulous of their foolish beliefs, what to make of order in nature, how to unite science and religion-are relevant today. In Search of Sir Thomas Browne is more than just a biography-it is a cabinet of wonders and an argument that Browne, standing at the very gates of modern science, remains an inquiring mind for our own time. As Stephen Greenblatt has written, Browne is "unnervingly one of our most adventurous contemporaries."