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This captivating volume goes beyond the epic tales of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to explore J.R.R. Tolkien’s incredible life and the experiences that shaped his legendary works. From his early days as a linguist to his passion for mythology and languages, this book provides fascinating insights into Tolkien’s extraordinary mind.

This biography of Jessica Mitford, fifth of the six famous Mitford Girls, tells the wild and unlikely story of a British aristocrat who became an American Communist, bringing her astonishing self-transformation to life with a riveting, often hilarious, account of trading wealth and status for a life of radical activism.

Bob Dylan's celebrated first memoir, narrated by two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn, is now available as an unabridged audio edition for the first time ever! Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.

Karl Kraus gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Aphoristiker deutscher Sprache. Ob berühmte Schriftsteller oder die Presse - nichts und niemand wurde von der gnadenlosen Kritik seiner Feder verschont. Bekannte Künstler wie Stefan Zweig, Georg Trakl, Thomas Mann und andere zollten ihm Respekt, aber die Zahl seiner Feinde in Kunst und Gesellschaft war enorm. Als Vorleser hinterließ er aufgrund seiner Sprachgewalt und Persönlichkeit angeblich einen äußerst außergewöhnlichen Eindruck.

Based on diaries that she kept from 1920-1932, the most famous du Maurier probes her own past, beginning with her earliest memories and encompassing the publication of her first book and her subsequent marriage.

One of the great international bestsellers, Rebecca also inspired a film, a play and television dramas. This perfect companion volume, The Rebecca Notebook, outlines just how Rebecca came to be written, tracing its origins, developments and the directions it might have taken. The author reveals how she first came upon the secret house, hidden deep in the Cornish woodland, that was to become the romantic setting for her most famous novel: a house which stood derelict, and which she lovingly restored to create her own home.

When she was seventeen years old, Hannah Kent travelled to Iceland from Australia. She’d never seen snow before, didn’t speak a word of Icelandic. All she knew was that she wanted to have an experience – to soak up something of the world. Soon she found herself isolated in a remote part of Iceland in a dark winter. It was a gruelling experience, but she quickly fell in love with the country: with its brutally beautiful landscapes and with its people. On returning home, Hannah had found a story, and so she began to write.

Sam Shepard was a true American original. A theater and film icon who lived life on a mythic scale, Shepard became an embodiment of the fierce independence and wild freedom of the American West. Taking us from the creative explosion of downtown New York City in the 1960s to Bob Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour, from Hollywood backlots and film shoots in the Mojave Desert to the horse ranches where Shepard went to escape it all, Robert M. Dowling’s biography reveals this playwright, actor, and filmmaker as we’ve never known him before.

Jim Harrison (1937–2016) was widely considered one of the finest voices of his generation. His twenty-one books of fiction and fourteen books of poetry influenced a generation of writers. Harrison helped to shape the course of contemporary American literature, revitalizing in particular the novella form, of which he was a recognized master.

Malcolm Cowley is not a household name today, but the American literary canon would look very different without him. A prototypical “man of letters” of his generation—Harvard University, a volunteer in the French ambulance corps in World War I, a rite of passage in Paris after the war—he became one of the few truly influential critics of the 1920s and ’30s, along with his close New Republic colleague Edmund Wilson. Cowley’s early support of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their set—and indeed for framing this group in generational terms in the first place—secured his place in literary history.

Through essays, poetry, and stories, Alan Garner takes listeners on a captivating journey, tracing his life from a working-class childhood during World War II to the esteemed halls of Oxford University, returning to the beloved landscapes of Cheshire that fuel his creativity. Along the way, he encounters serendipitous moments such as an unexpected meeting with a renowned mathematician during a long-distance run—each event adding a unique thread to the rich tapestry of his life.

Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents – entomologist father, dietician mother – Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: 'It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.’), but also thrilling and beautiful. From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape.

Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents–entomologist father, dietician mother–Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: 'It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.’), but also thrilling and beautiful. From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape.

Nachdem Gottfried Keller durch Konfrontation mit der Realität zur Einsicht gelangte, dass der Beruf des Landschaftsmalers seiner Erwartungshaltung bezüglich eines regelmäßigen und sicheren Einkommens nicht genügte, ebnete eine Laune des Schicksals ihm einen anderen Lebensweg. Aus Langeweile schreibt Keller ein paar Verse, die überraschenderweise sogar veröffentlicht werden und zwar nicht im Eigenverlag. Ermutigt und beflügelt von seiner anscheinend vorhandenen literarischen Begabung erwacht der geisteswissenschaftliche Ehrgeiz in ihm, der schließlich in seinen prosaischen Fähigkeiten mündet.

Un divorce forcément douloureux, une grande maison victorienne troquée contre un appartement en haut d'une colline dans le nord de Londres, deux filles à élever et des factures qui s'accumulent... Deborah Levy a cinquante ans quand elle décide de tout reconstruire, avec pour tout bagage, un vélo électrique et une plume d'écrivain. Cette histoire ne lui appartient pas à elle seule, c'est l'histoire de chaque femme confrontée à l'impasse d'une existence gouvernée par les normes et la violence sournoise de la société, en somme de toute femme en quête d'une vie à soi.

Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain's most beloved novelists, best known for enchanting children with his books like War Horse and Private Peaceful. Here, collected for the first time, are his thoughts on nature, childhood, education, war, and getting older. Full of gentle humour and sharp observation, Funny Thing Getting Older is a book to ponder and treasure.

As James Schiff writes in the introduction to this volume, of the writer who would eventually express himself in written form as fully as any American writer since Henry James, "Updike needed to write the way the rest of us need to breathe or eat." With his stunning rhetorical gifts—allowing him to thrive in both fiction and nonfiction, in criticism as well as poetry—he was also a consummate letter writer.

Joe McGinniss was a paradox: a brilliant writer whose dazzling achievements were overshadowed by personal demons. At age twenty-six, he became the youngest living person to top the New York Times bestseller list, for his book The Selling of the President about Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Shortly after, he walked out on his wife and their three young children.

Januar 1956: Siebzehn Jahre nachdem Mascha Kaléko Nazi-Deutschland in letzter Minute verlassen hat, kehrt sie zurück. Sie fährt nach Berlin, in die Stadt, in der sie glücklich gewesen war, in der sie als Dichterin erfolgreich geworden ist, und durch das ganze Land, ein ganzes Jahr lang. Fast täglich schickt sie Briefe an ihren Mann nach New York, und erzählt – von märchenhaften Erfolgen, von einem alten, neuen Land.

Longtemps, Murakami a couru. De cette passion, il a tiré un livre étonnant, entre éloge de l'effort, leçon de sagesse et mémoires inattendus. Car le maître ose une comparaison surprenante : si ténacité, capacité de concentration et talent sont les qualités requises d'un romancier, la course à pied permet de cultiver la patience et la persévérance.