What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorPain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953
Elizabeth Winder · 265 pages
In May of 1953, a twenty-one-year-old Plath arrived in New York City, the guest editor of Mademoiselle's annual College Issue. She lived at the Barbizon Hotel, attended the ballet, went to a Yankees game, and danced at the West Side Tennis Club. She was supposed to be having the time of her life. But what would follow was, in Plath's words, twenty-six days of pain, parties, and work which, ultimat
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
Judith Thurman · 592 pages
"In 1900, a provincial beauty best known as the child bride of a famous Parisian rake captivated the Belle Epoque by writing a story that invented the modern teenage girl. It was the first in a series of wildly popular but also critically acclaimed novels that, combined with a flamboyant career on the stage, made this former country girl the first authentic superstar of the century."--BOOK JACKET.
Hemingway: a Life Story
Carlos Baker · 367 pages
Carlos Baker's thorough profile of Ernest Hemingway, the American Nobel Laureate, journalist, war correspondent, and general legend, is the first telling of the Hemingway life and still stands as one of the best (perhaps put to second or third place after the publication of Michael S. Reynolds' stunning five-volume work on his life and Kenneth Lynn's fine bio/analysis from 1995). Baker brings both
J. R. R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth
Daniel Grotta · 197 pages
Surprisingly little is known about the personal life of the creator of Middle Earth. This man, who was embarrassed by success, lived most of his life as an Oxford scholar in the surrounds of a cloistered academic community. As a child in South Africa, Tolkien was kidnapped by a native and taken into the bush. As a youngster in the industrial city of Birmingham, England, Tolkien was raised by a Cat
Allen Ginsberg: A Biography
Barry Miles · 627 pages
Covering his life from his birth in 1926 to his career as a distinguished poet and professor, this is a biography of the beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Barry Miles draws on their long friendship and on Ginsberg's own journals and correspondence to give a full account of his life up to his death in 1997.
Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life
Howard Sounes · 309 pages
Locked in The Arms of a Crazy Life is the acclaimed biography of Charles Bukowski, the hard-drinking barfly whose semi-autobiographical books about low-life America made him a cult figure across the globe. Extensive research and unique contributions from friends, family and associates - including Mickey Rourke, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Crumb, Sean Penn, Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg - as well
Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick
Lawrence Sutin · 352 pages
"With thirty-eight books currently in print and seven of his novels and short stories adapted into blockbuster films, Philip K. Dick is recognized worldwide as one of our time's greatest and most influential novelists. Lawrence Sutin's Divine Invasions, acknowledged by the Dick family as the official Philip K. Dick biography, illuminates the life of the man who loosed the bonds of the science fict
Byron in Love
Edna O'Brien · 228 pages
Biographer Edna O'Brien has written an intimate biography that suits her fiery and charismatic subject. She follows Byron from the dissipations of Regency London to the wilds of Albania and the Socratic pleasures of Greece and Turkey, culminating in his meteoric rise to fame at the age of 24 on the publication of Childe Harold. With her prismatic eye and novelistic style, O'Brien captures the spir
Emerson: The Mind on Fire
Robert D. Richardson Jr. · 684 pages
Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl
Donald Sturrock · 672 pages
The first authorized biography of Roald Dahl, Storyteller is a masterful, witty and incisive look at one of the greatest authors and eccentric characters of the modern age. In his lifetime Roald Dahl pushed children's literature into uncharted territory, and today his popularity around the globe continues to grow, with millions of his books sold every year. But the man behind the mesmerizing stori
Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintences and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career
George Plimpton · 449 pages
Using oral biography, a technique that perfectly matches the style of his subject, George Plimpton blends the voices of Capote's lovers, haters, acquaintances, and colleagues into a highly readable narrative. Here we are present for the entire span of Capote's life: his Southern childhood and his early days in New York; his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms;
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
John Lahr · 765 pages
Here, celebrated drama critic John Lahr gives intimate access to the mind of one of the most brilliant dramatists of his century, whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation's sense of itself. This astute, deeply researched biography sheds light on Williams's warring family, his guilt, his creative triumphs and failures, his sexuality and numerous affairs, his misreported death, even
Hemingway: The Paris Years
Michael S. Reynolds · 402 pages
This new biography focuses on the complex Hemingway when fame is hitting full force - the years between A Farewell to Arms and the writing of For Whom The Bell Tolls. In a sympathetic narrative, Michael Reynolds creates a rich map of Hemingway's journey from promising young novelist to literary lion. He gives us the look and feel of the times and the people, as well as the give and take of litera
Jane Austen: A Life
Carol Shields · 188 pages
With the same sensitivity and artfulness that are the trademarks of her award-winning novels, Carol Shields explores the life of a writer whose own novels have engaged and delighted readers for the past two hundred years. In Jane Austen, Shields follows this superb and beloved novelist from her early family life in Steventown to her later years in Bath, her broken engagement, and her intense relat
The Private World of Georgette Heyer
Jane Aiken Hodge · 222 pages
The classic biography of Georgette Heyer is, finally, back in print and will delight Heyer fans everywhere. She wrote more than fifty novels, yet her private life was inaccessible to any but her nearest friends and relatives. Lavishly illustrated, and with extracts from her correspondence and references to her work, The Private World reveals a formidable and energetic woman with an impeccable s
Shakespeare by Another Name: The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man Who Was Shakespeare
Mark Anderson · 640 pages
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe
Mark Dawidziak · 304 pages
Stieg Larsson: Author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Noelle Angelica Simon · 39 pages
After taking his home country by storm with the Millennium trilogy, Swedish author Stieg Larsson went on to capture the imagination of the rest of the world. Hardcore fans, of which there are thousands-maybe even more-need no further introduction. However, even if you haven't read his books, you have probably heard of them anyway, as successful movie versions have already been created. The latest
JK Rowling: the wizard behind Harry Potter
Marc Shapiro · 127 pages
Charles Dickens
Claire Tomalin · 600 pages
When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England. His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength o
Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers
Valerie Lawson · 401 pages
A portrait of the English author of the classic children's story traces her long life, the creation of her mysterious and beloved title character, and her tumultuous relationship with Walt Disney.

