Hierdie boek is die voltooiing van Elsa Joubert se outobiografiese drieluik wat ingelei is deur ’n Wonderlike geweld (2005) en Reisiger (2009). Dit fokus hoofsaaklik op die skrywer se latere jare, in die aftreeoord in Kaapstad waar sy nou al geruime tyd woon, maar haar belewenis van die hede en onlangse verlede word onlosmaaklik vervleg met herinneringe aan veel verder terug, alles geteken met die kenmerkende woordvaardigheid van een van Afrikaans se mees gevierde skrywers.

Elsa Joubert - Biografiese inligting

Elsabé (Elsa) Antoinette Murray Joubert is op 19 Oktober 1922 in die Paarl gebore. Sy matrikuleer in 1939 aan die Hoër Meisieskool La Rochelle in die Paarl. Sy behaal ’n BA-graad (1942) en ’n Sekondêre Onderwysdiploma (1943) aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch.

In 1945 verwerf sy ’n meestersgraad aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad. Daarna is sy die vroueredakteur van Die Huisgenoot van 1946 tot 1948. Hierna begin sy te reis en in 1957 verskyn haar eerste reisverhaal, Water en woestyn, wat handel oor haar ervarings in Egipte en Uganda. Elsa Joubert se reise deur Afrika, Suid-Amerika, Europa en die Verre-Ooste het op ’n besondere wyse in haar werk neerslag gevind.

In 1963 verskyn haar eerste roman, Ons wag op die kaptein, wat onder meer die Eugène Marais-prys ontvang het. Sy is met die WA Hofmeyr-, CNA- en Louis Luyt-prys bekroon vir haar invloedryke roman Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (1978), wat in 2002 aangewys as een van die honderd beste boeke in Afrika.

In 1981 ken die British Royal Society of Literature die Winifred Holtby-prys aan haar toe en word sy ’n Fellow van die Society. Haar magistrale roman Die reise van Isobelle (1995) is met die Hertzogprys bekroon. Haar lewenswerk word bekroon met eredoktorsgrade van die Universiteite van Stellenbosch (2001) en Pretoria (2007), en sy ontvang die Orde van Ikhamanga (2004).

Skakel van Maandag, 18 Junie 2018 af in op RSG om te luister na Elsa Joubert se jongste roman, Spertyd (2017, Tafelberg) voorgelees deur Rika Sennett.

Originally published in English in 1951, this biography of one of Germany's foremost mystical poets dis-proves many of the myths surrounding Rainer Maria Rilke and examines his life and work from social, historical and psychological perspectives, while all the time referencing Rilke's works to his complex personality. The legacy of his work on younger generations is also examined. All German prose quotations have been translated into English for this edition, existing translations used for the German poetry.

'I Will Be Complete is the best memoir I've read in years. It's likely the best memoir published in years.' Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life and Chang and Eng From the bestselling author of Carter Beats the Devil and Sunnyside, a shocking, big-hearted memoir about his bizarre upbringing in California in the 1970s and how he survived it. Glen David Gold grew up rich on the beaches of 1970s California, until his father lost a fortune and his parents divorced when he was ten. Glen and his English mother moved to San Francisco, where she was fleeced by a series of charming con men and turned increasingly wayward. When he was twelve, she took off for New York without telling him, leaving him to fend for himself. On midnight streets and at drug-fuelled parties, wise-cracking his way through an alarming adult world, Glen watched his mother's countless, wild attempts to reinvent herself. In this exceptional memoir, acclaimed novelist Glen David Gold captures his bizarre, lonely upbringing and how it shaped him as an adult with stunning insight and unsparing candour. Shocking, mordantly funny and achingly affecting, he tells an unforgettable story of the years he spent trying to rescue his mother - and his ultimate realisation that only by breaking free could he ever hope to be complete. 'The prose is crystalline, hard as real diamonds, flashing, revealing. The story is simple, just a boy and his mother's long disintegration, but the journey is darkly complicated, heartbreaking, beautiful as hell.' Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama

With I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You, Ralph McInerny-distinguished scholar, mystery writer, editor, publisher, and family man-delivers a thoroughly engaging memoir. In the course of his recollections, McInerny describes his childhood in Minnesota; his grammar school and seminary education, with his decision to leave the path toward ordination; his marriage to his beloved Connie and their active family life and travels; and his life as a fiction writer. We learn of his career as a Catholic professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, his views on the Catholic Church, his experiences as an editor and publisher of Catholic magazines and reviews, his involvement with the International Catholic University, and his thoughts on other Catholic writers. Part homage to his academic home for the last half century and part appreciation of the many significant friendships he has fostered over his life, McInerny's reminiscences beautifully convey his lively interest in the world and his gift for friendship and collegiality. Written in his characteristically elegant style, by turns charming, poignant, humorous, and revealing, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You will delight McInerny's many devoted readers.

Four popular novelists of the same generation each wrote a novel inspired by a holiday that the author spent in France. In the nineteen-fifties, Rumer Godden based The Greengage Summer on her recollections of her family's 1923 battlefield-tour manque in the Champagne region. Margery Sharp's 1936 holiday in Southern France led to 'Still Waters' and The Nutmeg Tree: both the short story and the novel are set in and around the region of Aix-les-Bains. In 1955, Daphne du Maurier first visited the department of Sarthe to research French family history; the novel The Scapegoat was the immediate result of the holiday. And in 1966, Stella Gibbons' last trip to the continent took the form of a visit to an old friend in her summer home near Grenoble. The stay is obliquely reflected in The Snow-Woman, in which a similar holiday leads a never-married septuagenarian to experience a renaissance of sorts.

"A vital guide ... It is difficult to imagine anyone seriously interested in Dante who will not want to own this book" AN Wilson, The Times Since Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy it has defined how people imagine and depict not only heaven and hell, but romantic love and the human condition. However, while Dante's works are widely celebrated outside Italy, the circumstances of his extraordinary life are less well known. Born in 1265, Dante's adolescence was characterised by literary genius, but his political activism in one of the medieval world's wealthiest cities led to his death in exile. Pre-eminent Dante scholar Alessandro Barbero and celebrated translator Allan Cameron bring the poet vividly to life. Animating the political intrigue, violence, civil war, exile and cities that shaped Dante's poetic and political life, this is a remarkable portrait of one of the creators of European literature and a towering medieval figure in time for the 700th anniversary of his death.

In 1930 Danish artist Einar Wegener underwent a series of surgeries to live as Lili Ilse Elvenes (more commonly known as Lili Elbe). Her life story, Fra Mand til Kvinde (From Man to Woman), published in Copenhagen in 1931, is the first popular full-length (auto)biographical narrative of a subject who undergoes genital transformation surgery (Genitalumwandlung). In Man Into Woman: A Comparative Scholarly Edition, Pamela L. Caughie and Sabine Meyer present the full text of the 1933 American edition of Elbe's work with comprehensive notes on textual and paratextual variants across the four published editions in three languages. This edition also includes a substantial scholarly introduction which situates the historical and intellectual context of Elbe's work, as well as new essays on the work by leading scholars in transgender studies and modernist literature, and critical coverage of the 2015 biopic, The Danish Girl. This print edition has a digital companion: the Lili Elbe Digital Archive (www.lilielbe.org). Launched on July 6, 2019, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science (Institut fur Sexualwissenschaft) where Lili Elbe was initially examined, the Lili Elbe Digital Archive hosts the German typescript and all four editions of this narrative published in Danish, German, and English between 1931 and 1933, with English translations of the Danish edition and the typescript. Many letters from archives and contemporaneous articles noted in this print edition may be found in the digital archive.

The Celtic Twilight (1893) is a collection of stories written and edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, The Celtic Twilight captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Belief and Unbelief," a story is shared about a village at the foot of Ben Bulben. One day, a young girl disappears while walking through a local field. Fearful that the faeries have gotten her, the townspeople conduct a search of the village, checking every home while burning ragweed and reciting spells to ward off the mischievous spirits. "Mortal Help" discusses the interdependence of humans and faeries, who require the presence of the living in order to play games in the physical world. As evidence, an old ditch digger tells a story from his youth, when he witnessed a group of faeries playing the game of hurling not far from the field where he was working. In "A Knight of the Sheep," an old farmer faces off with the local tax collector, and both struggle to maintain respect for one another while trading shrewdly concealed insults. "The Devil" discusses several demonic sightings among Irish peasants, who claim to have met Lucifer by the side of the road by day and under the bed at night. The Celtic Twilight captures the collision of ancient and modern Ireland, preserving its legends while ensuring their mystery remains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's The Celtic Twilight is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Frederick Buechner is one of the most gifted writers of his generation, and his legacy casts a long shadow over Christian letters today. As a memoirist, he opened up an entirely new way to think about the genre. As a novelist, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer. And as a theologian and preacher, he pioneered the art of making theology accessible for a popular audience. Yet for all Buechner's enormous influence, many readers today are unfamiliar with his work, or have read him only in one genre. In this book, Buechner expert Jeffrey Munroe presents a collection of the true "essentials" from across Buechner's diverse catalog, as well as an overview of Buechner's life and a discussion of the state of his literary legacy today. Here is Buechner in all his complex glory, ready to delight and inspire again.

After spending more than a decade as a journalist in South Asia, Suzanne Fisher Staples turned to writing realistic novels about young people coming of age in modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, as well as the United States. Her elegant prose and compelling character development draw readers into lives and cultures that are always warmly appealing. In Suzanne Fisher Staples: The Setting Is the Story, Megan Lynn Isaac explores the award winning novels of this unusual writer. Comprised of eight chapters one exploring each of Staples's works (six novels and a memoir) and an additional chapter detailing the critical reception of her most famous books, the Pakistani trilogy (Shabanu, Haveli and The House of Djinn) Isaac considers the predominant themes, characters, and settings of each work and provides background information about the countries, religions, art forms, and other aspects of the cultures of South Asia that are central to Staples's writing. Original material from the author's interviews with Staples provides new insights into her work and experiences. Biographical information about Staples, both in chronological and narrative form, is also included, as well as a comprehensive bibliography of scholarly material related to Staples. This book will help scholars and fans of Staples to explore the themes and literary techniques employed by her, as well as to deepen their understanding of the cultures and traditions upon which she draws."

The critically acclaimed biography of a man respected for his fierce commitment to truth and honesty, and his passionate belief in the avant-garde. In his heyday, during the 1960s and early 1970s, B. S. Johnson was one of the best-known young novelists in Britain. A passionate advocate for the avant-garde in both literature and film, he became famous -- not to say notorious -- both for his forthright views on the future of the novel and for his idiosyncratic ways of putting them into practice. But in November 1973 Johnson's lifelong depression got the better of him, and he was found dead at his north London home. He had taken his own life at the age of forty. Jonathan Coe's long-awaited biography is based upon unique access to the vast collection of papers Johnson left behind after his death, and upon dozens of interviews with those who knew him best. As unconventional in form as one of its subject's own novels, it paints a remarkable picture -- sometimes hilarious, often overwhelmingly sad -- of a tortured personality; a man whose writing tragically failed to keep at bay the demons that pursued him.

Published in 1990: This book tells the life story of Dante, the poet and his work.

This collection of seven essays, like the carefully linked collection of vignettes within Tim O'Brien's most popular book The Things They Carried, contains multiple critical and biographical angles with recurring threads of life events, themes, characters, creative techniques, and references to all of O'Brien's books. Grounded in through research, Herzog's work illustrates how O'Brien merges his life experiences with his creative production; he rarely misses an opportunity to introduce these critical life events into his writing.

Amanda Prowse has built a bestselling career on the lives of fictional women. Now she turns the pen on her own life. I guess the first question to ask is, what kind of woman am I? Well, you know those women who saunter into a room, immaculately coiffed and primped from head to toe? If you look behind her, you'll see me. From her childhood, where there was no blueprint for success, to building a career as a bestselling novelist against all odds, Amanda Prowse explores what it means to be a woman in a world where popularity, slimness, beauty and youth are currency-and how she overcame all of that to forge her own path to happiness. Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious and always entirely relatable, Prowse details her early struggles with self-esteem and how she coped with the frustrating expectations others had of how she should live. Most poignantly, she delves into her toxic relationship with food, the hardest addiction she has ever known, and how she journeyed out the other side. One of the most candid memoirs you're ever likely to read, Women Like Us provides welcome insight into how it is possible-against the odds-to overcome insecurity, body consciousness and the ubiquitous imposter syndrome to find happiness and success, from a woman who's done it all, and then some.

While the entire world knows Mark Twain as the renowned author of many classic American novels, few people are aware that he was also a highly successful businessman. In fact, more than half of his life was consumed by moneymaking pursuits, which often resulted in writing projects being neglected--but at the same time, these adventures were the inspiration behind many of the characters found in his books.

In Ignorance, Confidence, and Filthy Rich Friends, Peter Krass captures a little-known side of this American icon and details the roller coaster ride of his business ventures in a dramatic, entertaining, and informative narrative style. From Twain's time as the founder of his own publishing house--where he made a small fortune publishing General Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs--to his foray into venture capitalism and investment in numerous start-up firms, to his focus on his own inventions, this engaging book reveals the Mark Twain that few of us know: the no-nonsense, successful American businessman.

Written by his collateral descendant, sculptor Andrew Wordsworth, this insightful biography studies Wordsworth's poetry to understand more fully this deeply private and often enigmatic personality, and it observes the artist's life to better grasp the meaning of the deceptively immediate verses which conceal many layers of meaning. Andrew Wordsworth doesn't hesitate to describe faithfully his illustrious ancestor's complex and aloof personality, and his successes as well as his shortcomings. For example, he explains how after The Prelude (completed in 1805 but published posthumously) he composed little of note and his project with Coleridge, The Recluse, remained a literary pipe-dream. Perhaps, Wordsworth himself was the 'Recluse', increasingly isolated, ensconced in his bucolic corner in the Lake District, surrounded by his close family circle (the harem, as Coleridge called it): his sister Dorothy, his constant companion, and later his wife Mary and his daughters - tragically, Dorothy was to be afflicted by a mental illness for the last 20 years of her life. Moreover, Wordsworth became progressively conservative and nationalistic, abandoning entirely his earlier liberal ideals which led him to join the French revolutionaries several years earlier. One wonders if this need for a settled and steady life and for tradition was a reaction to the many upheavals he had experienced in his early life; he was orphaned as a young child and grew up separated from his brothers and sisters: he didn't see Dorothy for nine consecutive years. However, this lack of interest in the outside world and its progress was perhaps one of the causes stemming the flow of his creativity which nonetheless would change the course of English poetry forever. As Dr David Whitley notes, Well-Kept Secrets intersperses the narrative exploring Wordsworth's life with a wealth of poetic verses. This structure clearly shows how Wordsworth's art was intimately linked to his existence and how it was a means - more or less conscious - to come to terms with the world, with himself and the many contradictions running like chasms across his personality. It also enables Andrew Wordsworth to shed some new light on the interpretation of the poetry and to better understand the poet as a man.

Published for the first time as Ernest Hemingway intended, one of the great writer's most beloved and enduring works: his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s.
Published posthumously in 1964, "A Moveable Feast" remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. Since Hemingway's personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now, this spe- cial restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published.
Featuring a personal Foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest's sole surviving son, and an Introduction by the editor and grandson of the author, Sean Hemingway, this new edi- tion also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-pub- lished Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, and his first wife Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of other literary luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Maddox Ford, and insightful recollections of Hemingway's own early experiments with his craft.
Sure to excite critics and readers alike, the restored edition of "A Moveable Feast" brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

In this, the companion volume to his earlier autobiographical Apostate (1926), Forrest Reid continues his 'chronicle of a prolonged personal adventure'. Private Road (first published in 1940) offers Reid's descriptions of his early writing efforts; a youthful correspondence with Henry James that began with promise yet ended disappointingly ('the Master was not pleased...'); his Cambridge encounters with such luminaries as Ronald Firbank and W.B. Yeats; the production and reception of his first published works; and his valued friendships with E.M. Forster and Walter de la Mare. The closing stages of the book reflect Reid's unique sense of the spiritual: a compelling meditation on our 'second life' in a place Reid calls 'dreamland', wherein a 'shadowy agent' conjures an atmosphere that can hold powerful inspirational properties for the artist. Faber Finds is devoted to restoring to readers a wealth of lost/neglected classics and authors of distinction. The range embraces fiction, non-fiction, the arts and children's books. For a full list of available titles visit faberfinds.co.uk. To join the dialogue with fellow book-lovers please see our blog faberfindsblog.co.uk. Normal 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */

Gurba is an extraordinary performer with an enthusiastic spoken word fan base, and the Mean's voice-driven quality should appeal to them directly Rather than a memoir, this is a nonfiction novel, a la How Should a Person Be-Gurba's life provides the plot points, but a novelistic impulse provides the frame. Gurba turns what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy, differentiating between "classic" (stranger rape) and "avant garde" (molestation by a classmate) sexual assault in a way that's in your face and unforgettable. Race, class, gender, and sexuality all break open in unexpected ways in Gurba's hands. This is a confident, funny, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously.

WITH A NEW FOREWORD AND REVISED INTRODUCTION 'A superb biography ... full of compassion, perception' Roger Lewis, The Times 'I love this book. Douglas Murray is a genius' Rupert Everett Lord Alfred Douglas, known as 'Bosie', son of the Marquess of Queensberry, was known as one of the most beautiful young men of his generation. Aged twenty-one he met and became the lover and subsequent obsession of Oscar Wilde. Their relationship caused a scandal in 1895 when Wilde took Queensberry, Douglas's aggressive father, to court for libel. When the details of their relationship were aired in court, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and later imprisoned. Wilde's story is well known, but this is the first book to tell it fully from Douglas's perspective. Written, and originally published in 2000, with access to never-before-seen papers , Bosie explores the contradictions, tensions and turmoils of Douglas's life with Wilde and beyond as a poet, husband and father. This compelling biography uncovers the life of one of the most notorious figures in literary history, and its course from gilded beautiful youth to semi-reclusive outcast, at the time of Douglas's death in 1945.

The description 'definitive' is too easily used, but Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov merits it unhesitatingly. To quote no less an authority than Michael Frayn: 'With question the definitive biography of Chekhov, and likely to remain so for a very long time to come. Donald Rayfield starts with the huge advantage of much new material that was prudishly suppressed under the Soviet regime, or tactfully ignored by scholars. But his mastery of all the evidence, both old and new - a massive archive - is magisterial, his background knowledge of the period is huge; his Russian is sensitive to every colloquial nuance of the day, and his tone is sure. He captures a likeness of the notoriously elusive Chekhov which at last begins to seem recognisably human - and even more extraordinary.' Chekhov's life was short, he was only forty-four when he died, and dogged with ill-health but his plays and short stories assure him of his place in the literary pantheon. Here is a biography that does him full justice, in short, unapologetically to repeat that word 'definitive'. 'I don't remember any monograph by a Western scholar on a Russian author having such success. . . Nikita Mikhalkov said that before this book came out we didn't know Chekhov. . . The author doesn't invent, add or embellish anything . . . Rayfield is motivated by the Westerner's urge not ot hold information back, however grim it may be.' Anatoli Smelianski, Director of Moscow Arts Theatre School 'It is hard to imagine another book about Chekhov after this one by Donald Rayfield.' Arthur Miller, Sunday Times 'Donald Rayfield's exemplary biography draws on a daunting array of material inacessible or ignored by his predecessors.' Nikolai Tolstoy, The Literary Review 'Donald Rayfield, Chekhov's best and definitive biographer.' William Boyd, Guardian

From the award-winning poet, dark comic microbursts of prose deliver a whole childhood, at the hands of an aspiring middle-class Jewish family whose hard-boiled American values and wit were the forge of a poet's coming-of-age.

“My grandparents taught me to write my sins on paper and cast them into the water. . . . They didn’t expect an entire book,” Hirsch says in the “prologue” to this glorious festival of knife-sharp observations. In microchapters—sometimes only a single scathing sentence long—with titles like “Call to Breakfast,” “Pay Cash,” “The Sorrow of Manly Sports,” and “Aristotle on Lawrence Avenue,” Eddie’s gambling father, Ruby, son of a white metal smelter, schools him and his sister in blackjack; Eddie’s mom bangs pots to wake the kids to a breakfast of cold cereal; Uncle Bob, in the collection business, is heard threatening people on the phone; and nobody suffers fools. In this household, Eddie learned to jab with his left and cross with his right, never to kid a kidder, and how to sneak out at night.
Affectionate, deadpan, and exuberant, steeped in Yiddishkeit and Midwestern practicality, Hirsch’s laugh-and-cry performance animates a heartbreaking odyssey, from the cradle to the day he leaves home, armed with sorrow and a huge store of poetic wit.