In 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, Arthur Koestler, a German exile writing for a British newspaper, was arrested by Nationalist forces in Málaga. He was then sentenced to execution and spent every day awaiting death—only to be r...

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis never wrote a memoir, but she told her life story and revealed herself in intimate ways through the nearly 100 books she brought into print during the last two decades of her life as an editor at Viking and ...

"Having driven across the country to see her brand-new adopted granddaughter, Debra Monroe's mother says the first thing that comes into her head: 'I knew she'd be black, but not this black.' Monroe simply says, 'Mom, there's a b...

In the tradition of Quirk's bestselling Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents (100,000+ copies in print), here are outrageous and uncensored profiles of the world's greatest writers, complete with hundreds of little-known, politically i...

A candid memoir by the top best-selling author and Oscar Award-winning screenwriter discusses such life experiences as his Depression-era childhood in Chicago, his World War II Air Force service, and his relationships with a wide rang...

Elizabeth Wurtzel published her memoir of depression, Prozac Nation, to astonishing literary acclaim. A cultural phenomenon by age twenty-six, she had fame, money, respecteverything she had always wanted except that one, true thing: h...

Bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark writes about her early years, beginning with her Bronx childhood during the Depression with her widowed mother, to her own widowhood and the raising of her five children years later. She also writ...

Jeanne Marie Laskas had a dream of fleeing her otherwise happy urban life for fresh air and open space — a dream she would discover was about something more than that. But she never expected her fantasy to come true — unti...

In late 1956, an item in The Times of London stunned England's literary set. Confirmed bachelor and celebrated Christian apologist C.S. Lewis announced his marriage to Joy Gresham. His choice could not have been more unlikely. Joy was...

Audiences at storytelling festivals worldwide are passionate about Donald Davis and his deceptively soft-edged Appalachian stories. Developed in oral performance, Davis'stories resonate in the experiences of his listeners and readers.

84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching ...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A haunting, unforgettable mother-daughter story for a new generation—the debut of a blazing new lyrical voiceNAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Domenica Ruta ...

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Christmas Hope series comes an inspirational memoir about coming face to face with your deepest heartbreak only to discover your deepest joys.

A publishing correspondent chronicles a year's worth of reading to explore how the world of books intermingled with her relationships, a journey during which she discovered that the books chose her as much as she chose them, came to r...

The tedious steps of the process of awakening the intelligence of a human being deprived of all the ordinary means of communication with her fellows at an age so early that practically no foundation has been laid by normal means--such...

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his ...

"Hill provides us with a reading list the equal of any degree course."—The Times (London)In pursuit of a book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, forgotten she owned, or wanted ...

Sooner or later, each of us must face the day we develop a disturbing new interest in lawn care; the day we order sauvignon blanc instead of Rolling Rock; the day we refuse to see any concert where we cannot sit down. Sooner or later,...

Newbery Award-winning writer Paula Fox recollects the tragedy of her uringing in this woeful memoir. With an alcoholic father and a mother who aggressively rejected her, Fox was raised by a collection of diversely irresponsible partie...

Consuelo and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry met in Buenos Aires in 1930—she a seductive young widow, he a brave pioneer of early aviation, decorated for his acts of heroism in the deserts of North Africa. He was large in his pass...

Virginia Woolf was one of the most significant novelists of the twentieth century and a leading figure in the Bloomsbury Circle. In her brilliant, experimental novels, among them To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, she extended the b...

Back in print in an all-new edition, is the engaging and illuminating chronicle of the life of the "Queen of Mystery." Fans of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and readers of John Curran's fascinating biographies IAgatha Chri...

An intimate memoir by the award-winning author of The Corrections describes growing up in a family of all boys in Webster Groves, Missouri, reflecting on such topics as the dynamics of a Christian youth fellowship, the influence of Ka...

Award-winning biographer Lyndall Gordon presents a startling portrayal of one of America's most significant literary figures that will change the way we view her life and legacy.

In this deeply etched and haunting memoir, Vivian Gornick tells the story of her lifelong battle with her mother for independence. There have been numerous books about mother and daughter, but none has dealt with this closest of filia...

The Facts is the unconventional autobiography of a writer who has reshaped our idea of fiction—a work of compelling candor and inventiveness, instructive particularly in its revelation of the interplay between life and art.Philip Ro...

While recovering from radiation therapy, Suzanne Strempek Shea heard from a friend who was looking for help at her bookstore. Shea volunteered, seeing it as nothing more than a way to get out of her pajamas and back into the world. Bu...

Amy Tan has touched millions of readers with haunting and sympathetic novels of cultural complexity and profound empathy. With the same spirit and humor that characterize her acclaimed novels, she now shares her insight into her own l...

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Christmas Hope series comes an inspirational memoir about coming face to face with your deepest heartbreak only to discover your deepest joys.

POINT TO POINT NAVIGATION refers to a form of navigation Gore Vidal resorted to as a first mate in the navy during World War II. As he says, 'As I was writing this account of my life and times since PALIMPSEST, I felt as if I were aga...