From Beckett to Burroughs, The Story of O to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, an iconic literary troublemaker tells the colorful stories behind the stories Richard Seaver came to Paris in 1950 seeking Hemingway's moveable feast. Paris had become a different city, traumatized by World War II, yet the red wine still flowed, the cafés bustled, and the Parisian women found American men exotic and heroic. There was an Irishman in Paris writing plays and...

Provides quick, accurate answers to hundreds of question about the historical background and setting of 300 often-studied literary works, including novels, plays, poems, speeches and short stories. Contains profiles of three hundred notable literary works written from ancient times through the end of the twentieth century, relating them to the historical context in which they were written and in which they are set; arranged alphabetically by title...

Inspired by transcendentalism, Whitman's immortal collection includes some of the greatest poems of modern times, including his masterpiece, "Song of Myself." Shattering standard conventions, it stands as an unabashed celebration of body and nature. "The most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed."--Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walt Whitman was a poetic Visionary. He published the first edition of this monumental work in 1855...

Pretenders singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde tells exactly where she came from and what her crooked, winding path to stardom entailed. Her All-American upbringing in Akron, Ohio, a child of postwar power and prosperity. Her soul's capture, along with tens of millions of her generation, by the gods of sixties rock who came through Cleveland -- Mitch Ryder, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Paul Butterfield, and Iggy Pop among them. Her shocked witness in 1970...