Biographies & True Stories

A poet who crafted thegreatest character in literary history with his engaging anti-hero of Satan, John Milton connected personal experience with the breadth of cosmic epic. HisParadise Lost is a touchstone of English literature.In the latest entry in...

The civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists drove the largest refugee exodus in the modern history of China,across the sea to the southern island of Taiwan. Martial artists of many styles were among this diaspora.In the 1940's areas of...

In Three Fires,award-winning author Denise Mina re-imagines the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century - inspired by the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola.Girolamo Savonarola...

What makes Indiana University one of the best institutions for higher education in the world? After spending a few months pondering on this questions, I realized that it is a multitude of things. From having some of the most immersive and intentional...

A biography of the remarkable woman whose bestselling Mythology has introduced millions of readers to the classical world.Edith Hamilton (18671963) didn't publish her first book until she was sixty-two. But over the next three decades, this former...

The brainchild of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray, Banneker: The Afro-American Astronomerwas first conceived after Murray discovered what he found to be a beautifully written letter to Thomas Jefferson by a then unknown writer of color.Aided in his...

'Some girls fancy sailors, others fancy soldiers. But you, my dear, are a fag hag!'Lola Miesseroff's childhood certainly predisposed her to be a rebel. She was born in Marseilles in 1947 to immigrant parents, her mother a...

The capacity to tell stories - along with language and the ability to create art - is seen as both intrinsic and unique to the human species. Over thousands of years, we've forged narratives of our origins, our journeys and our dreams as a means of...

Letters made public for the first time: never-before-seen love letters between Farley Mowat and his wife, Claire. Claire participated fully in the project, giving permission to publish her love letters and photos from her personal archive. Includes...

I lost my possessions, my salary, my status, my career, my country. And in that fall, I gained everything.Bhutan is known as the land of Gross National Happiness, a Buddhist Shangri-la hidden in the Himalayas. But in the late 1980s, Bhutan waged a brutal...

It's not easy being in the public eye. There's always someone watching, waiting for you to mess up. That's where Jim Mahoney comes in. For over 40 years, he's been the go-to guy for Hollywood's elite when they need to clean up a scandal or avoid one...

An experimental account of one woman's quest to shed addictive substances and behaviors from her life-which dares to ask if we're really better off without them.In January 2021, Freda Love Smith, acclaimed rock musician and author of Red Velvet...

An August 2023 Indie Next Pick, selected by booksellers A Vogue Most Anticipated Book of 2023 A WBUR Summer Reading Recommendation A Next Big Idea Club's August 2023 Must-Read BookAn astonishing, vital book about Antarctica, climate change, and...

Beyond an adrenaline ride or a chronicle of bravura heroics, this unflinching view of a Minneapolis firefighter reveals the significant toll of emergency responseIn this remarkable memoir, Jeremy Norton marshals twenty-two years of professional...

With exuberant wit, Elena Passarello casts her gaze on famous historical animals, crafting an essay collection organised as medieval bestiary.Beginning with Yuka, a 39,000 year old mummified woolly mammoth recently found in the Siberian permafrost, each...

Donald Fagen will forever be associated with Steely Dan, the band he formed with Walter Becker and four other musicians in 1972.The smooth, radio-friendly veneer of the duo's songs made Steely Dan internationally popular and famous in the 1970s, but the...

David Fitzgerald shares the adventures he had growing up as a latchkey kid, left alone to create his own calamities in the atomic age. His father's teaching style was to throw him into the river to see if he could swim, then press on at full speed. David...

Dr. Stallworth, the author, was born and reared in Birmingham, Alabama, during the 1940s 50s, and early 60s, a city characterized during those years by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as "the most segregated city in America."Crossed the Alabama state line...

Of the many Cold War radio DJs who broadcast to the USSR, Seva Novgorodsev must be near the top of the list. A masterful BBC presenter, Seva was considered a sage of rock 'n' roll. His programs introduced forbidden western popular music and culture into...

Dovlatovand Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the mostconsequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, toanother: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book's focus is ostensibly the manhimself, the text unfolds as a comprehensive look at...

An award-winning journalist courageously reveals the personal cost of war reporting, vividly recalling his dangerous assignment and confronting its devastating impact on his family.After ten years reporting from central Africa,Anjan Sundaram is living a...

Told through essays, memoirs, and other musings, this is the story of a radical Jew, academic, and educator from his birth in Ukraine during the Holocaust through the radical 60s and 70s, to the present day as he fights anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism,...

Words of wisdom from great samurai leaders: A collection of inspiring essays and aphorisms from Japan's leading warriors.Samurai warrior leaders had to deal with grim conditions of life, death and survival. But such men were not simply rough...

The joy is in the journey! We all have our own journey in life with ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like things will never go our way, but yet if we are bold enough to face our fears, learn from our failures, and heal from our pain then we can find the...

An elevated, gifty anthology of love letters from history's most passionate romantics. This beautiful volume features love letters from a variety of people throughout history, including Heloise and Abelard, Henry VIII, Margaret of Valois, Napoleon...

"I play what I am. I play Mingus." This comics biography tells the troubled life, the battles against racism, the brilliant music of a master who has left an indelible mark on the jazz scene, and beyond. From his beginnings in Los Angeles in the 1940s to...

For years, a small unit of France's national police known as 'The Office in Charge of the Fight Against Crimes Against Humanity' has been discreetly chasing down war criminals.As the head of the thirty-person team, Colonel Eric Emeraux has investigated...

In this hard-hitting collection of essays, D.B. Maroon presents a personal biography of America, Blackness, and racial politics with unflinching style, and delivers a relentless truth-telling on some of the country's fiercest debates and most profound...

Starred Review fromForeword Reviews. "The book conveys emotions in a deep, visceral way . . . an outstanding memoir about the difficulties of overcoming abuse." A breathtaking and gut-wrenchingly real graphic memoir of the struggles of an adolescent girl...

No origin story of the New York Mets is complete without Ed Kranepool.The lefty first baseman known as "Steady Eddie" made his major-league debut at age 17 during the team's inaugural season and would eventually depart, nearly two decades later, with his...

The biography of one of the most famous abortionists of the nineteenth century-and a story that has unmistakable parallels to the current war on reproductive rightsFor forty years in the mid-nineteenth century, "Madame Restell," the nom de guerre of the...

An old pond; a frog jumps in: the sound of water Basho This comprehensive introduction to Japan's best-loved haiku poets is the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn about haiku. Compiled and with commentary by William Scott Wilson, the book...

The Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was a prolific writer, polymath and prodigious collector who amassed the largest collection of naturalia in sixteenth-century Europe, as well as hundreds of coloured drawings detailing them. Many of these...

Ford Madox Ford (18731939) lived among several of the most important artists and writers of his time. Raised by Pre-Raphaelites and friends with Henry James, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad, Ford was a leading figure of the avant-garde in pre-WWI London,...

A critical biography of one of the most celebrated prose stylists in early modern English.This book provides an overview of the life and work of the scandalous Renaissance writer Thomas Nashe (1567c.1600), whose writings led to the closure of theaters...

A critical biography of Ren Descartes, whose first principle ("I think therefore I am.") reshaped modern philosophy. Often called 'the father of modern philosophy', Ren Descartes' contributions to philosophy, mathematics and natural science set the...

In this new book, David Ellis traces Byron's life from rented lodgings in Aberdeen to the crumbling splendours of Newstead Abbey and then on to his grand tour of the East. Describing his exile from England after a disastrous marriage, and subsequent...

Mysterious, esoteric, and baffling, John Ashbery is notorious for the seeming difficulty of his work. But Ashbery is also entertaining, humorous, even charming, and ever responsive to his shifting social and political contexts. This biography charts...

Once every generation there is a Chosen One, who will stand between humanity and darkness.But why is the Chosen One so often a teenager? Why do only children get swept through portals to save the fantastic world on the other side? Whose idea was it to...

From the legendary vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, lessons in investment strategy, philanthropy, and living a rational and ethical life."A timeless classic that will change how you approach life. There is a billion-dollar education inside this book...

In this anthology of microliterature over forty writers explore the theme of play - from carefree diversions to fateful games of chance. Here you will find talented writers playing seriously with words, revelling in irreverence and debunking received...

From the 1930s to the 1970s, in New York and in Paris, daring publishers and writers were producing banned pornographic literature. The books were written by young, impecunious writers, poets, and artists, many anonymously. Most of these pornographers...

Get inside the head of Rihanna: musician, fashion designer, and business mogul.This collection of quotes has been curated from Rihanna's numerous public statements - interviews, books, social media posts, television appearances, and more. It's a...

The inspiring story of a young Mexican immigrant who became a renowned neurosurgeon.Today he is known as Dr. Q, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and neuroscientist who leads cutting-edge research to cure brain cancer. But not too long ago, he was...

This celebrated memoir, one of the most notable literary debuts of 2023 tells of a young woman's coming-of-age in the bohemian '90s, as her adolescence gives way to a struggle with dissociative disorder.Alice Carrire tells the story of her unconventional...

A collection of personal essays detailing the life and achievements of a renowned environmental hero and activist.Mr. Mindbomb is a chronology of the significant events of Bob Hunter's life, written chapter by chapter by those who knew him. Where one...

At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, Aaron Judge emerged as the biggest story in baseball in 2017 with his monstrous home runs and record-breaking ability. A three-sport athlete in high school and a Division I ballplayer at Fresno State, the Californian was...

Whether you hike, bike, camp, climb, hunt, ride, paddle, paint, garden-whatever way you get out and enjoy nature, you leave an impact on the outdoors every time you step out your front door. Every step your boots take down dusty trails, every bolt your...