This nicely illustrated reference for junior high and high school students offers 20-page profiles of 93 of the world's most influential writers of the twentieth century. Arranged alphabetically, each profile provides facts about the writer's life and works as well as a commentary on his or her significance, discussion of political and social events that occurred during his or her lifetime, a reader's guide to major works, and events, beliefs or traditions that inspired the writer's works.
- The most comprehensive single-volume guide to writers and their works on the market - Compiled by an international team of literary critics, authors, teachers and journalists - Beautifully illustrated with portraits of writers and photo graphs of their work - The perfect companion to the acclaimed 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - Also available in the same series: 501 Great Artists (March 2009)
Profiles 501 poets, novelists, playwrights, philosophers, and essayists from around the world and throughout history, with critical appraisals of each author's work and their place in world literature and culture.
In this exquisite collection of essays and photographs, women writers pay tribute to some of the most influential women of our time. Spanning our century and culture, these intimate portraits reveal both writer and subject in fifty inspired pairings. Some subjects and writers included in this book are: Elizabeth Leonard on Nicole Kidman; Jennet Conant on Barbara Walters; Andrea Leand on Venus and Serena Williams; Sarah Goldman on Cathy Freeman; Gail Sheehy on Hilary Clinton; Holly Brubach on Maria Callas; Linda Richardson on J.K. Rowling and Melissande Clarke on Cate Blanchett. Legends 2 is a provocative celebration of both the strengths and imperfections of fifty courageous women who have changed the world. Each inspiring piece is accompanied by a gorgeous duotone photograph by such eminent photographers as Stephen Korbet, Michael Collopy, Annie Leibovitz, Stephen Frank and Nigel Barker. Spanning the arts, politics, literature, science, and sports, these essays and photographs capture the rich texture of fifty extraordinary women s lives what has made their contributions legendary and their legacies timeless.
In this exuberant celebration of the world's museums, great and small, revered writers like Ann Patchett, Julian Barnes, Ali Smith, and more tell us about their favorite museums, including the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York, the Mus'e Rodin in Paris, and the Prado in Madrid. These essays, collected from the pages of The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine, reveal the special hold that some museums have over us all. Acclaimed novelist William Boyd visits the Leopold Museum in Vienna -- a shrine to his favorite artist, Egon Schiele, whom Boyd first discovered on a postcard as a University student. In front of her favorite Rodins, Allison Pearson recalls a traumatic episode she suffered at the hands of a schoolteacher following a trip to the Mus'e in Paris. Neil Gaiman admires the fantastic world depicted in British outsider artist Richard Dadd's "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke," a tiny painting that also decorated the foldout cover of a Queen album, housed in the Victorian room of Tate Britain's Pre-Raphaelite collection. Ann Patchett fondly revisits Harvard University's Museum of Natural History -- which she discovered at 19, while in the throes of summer romance with a biology student named Jack. Treasure Palaces is a treasure trove of wonders, a tribute to the diversity and power of the museums, the safe-keepers of our world's most extraordinary artifacts, and an intimate look into the deeply personal reveries we fall into when before great art.
Artist and graphic designer Andy Tuohy turns his hand to the world of literature, in this new instalment of the A-Z series. Rendered in his distinctive style, this new book features portraits of 52 key modern writers significant for their contribution to literature, with a whole host of names from across the world including Gabriel García Márquez, Samuel Beckett, Émile Zola, Jung Chang, Franz Kafka and Leo Tolstoy to name but a few. Each writer's entry will also have a summary of the essential things you need to know about them, why they are important in the field of literature, a list of their must-read books, and a surprising fact or two about them, as well as other images throughout such as of famous book covers and author photographs. A fun, easy guide to some of the best writers of modern times, this would be a great gift for an English Lit student, and anyone who just loves literature.
Presents a richly-detailed portrait of the generation of twenty-somethings raised in an era of anti-anxiety medication, text messaging, and terrorism threats, and offers a look at the world of anxiety disorders and celebrity gossip.
From the #1 travel magazine in the country, a collection of travel tales from some of today's finest writers Travel writing maintains its seemingly endless popularity, and this volume offers a particularly transporting body of work, pairing exotic locales with writers of the highest caliber: Russell Banks writes on the Everglades, Francine Prose explores the secrets of Prague, Robert Hughes takes us on a tour of Italy, and more. From the most beautiful gardens to visit in Japan to the best free things to do in Provence, this book is as enlightening as it is entertaining. Whether off to the other side of the globe or to their favorite reading chair, wanderers of every sort will find this book truly indispensable. Other featured writers and places include: Nik Cohn on Savannah Philip Gourevitch on Tanzania Shirley Hazzard on Capri Pico Iyer on Iceland and Ethiopia Nicole Krauss on Japan Suketu Mehta on the Himalayas Edna O'Brien on Bath Patricia Storace on Provence and Athens James Truman on Iran Gregor Von Rezzori on Romania Edmund White on Jordan Simon Winchester on Mount Pinatubo William Dalrymple on his pilgrimage to Santiago John Julius Norwich on the Vatican Jan Morris on Hawaii
