“Things was different when I was Comin’ Up.” It is 1949, the threshold of the fabulous fifties. You can get a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas for half a buck. And, you only have to work an hour to earn that amount. The girls who do it all swear they “only did it once before” and virginity is considered a prized possession. Most guns have just six bullets and there are only three categories of drugs with which to deal; alcohol, uppers and downers. The police still think Miranda is just a girl’s name, and no one cares if the cops use extra energy to keep the lower elements in line. This book follows the lives of six boys who try to break the shackles of poverty. The lessons they learn as they struggle their way to manhood are as important today as they were back then.
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Titled after perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most autobiographical song, from Sunday in the Park with George—Finishing the Hat not only collects his lyrics for the first time, it offers readers a rare personal look into his life as well as his remarkable productions. Stephen Sondheim’s career spanned more than half a century; his lyrics are synonymous with musical theater and popular culture. Sondheim—the winner of seven Tonys, an Academy Award, seven Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize and more—treats us to never-before-published songs from each show, songs that were cut or discarded before seeing the light of day, along with the lyrics for all of his musicals from 1954 to 1981, including West Side Story, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. He discusses his relationship with his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, and his collaborations with extraordinary talents such as Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Ethel Merman, Richard Rodgers, Angela Lansbury, Harold Prince and a panoply of others. The anecdotes—filled with history, pointed observations and intimate details—transport us back to a time when theater was a major pillar of American culture. Best of all, Sondheim appraises his work and dissects his lyrics, as well as those of others, offering unparalleled insights into songwriting that will be studied by fans and aspiring songwriters for years to come. Accompanying Sondheim’s sparkling writing are behind-the-scenes photographs from each production, along with handwritten music and lyrics from the songwriter’s personal collection. Penetrating and surprising, poignant, funny and sometimes provocative, Finishing the Hat is not only an informative look at the art and craft of lyric writing, it is a history of the theater that belongs on the same literary shelf as Moss Hart’s Act One and Arthur Miller’s Timebends. It is also a book that will leave you humming the final bars of Merrily We Roll Along, while eagerly anticipating the next volume.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this deeply compelling novel and epic milestone of American literature, a nameless narrator tells his story from the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years He describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," before retreating amid violence and confusion. Originally published in 1952 as the first novel by a then unknown author, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, James Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
A Collier's Friday NightThe Widowing of Mrs HolroydThe Daughter-in-LawThe Fight for BarbaraTouch and GoOxford English Drama offers plays from the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries in selections that make available both rarely printed and canonical works. The texts are freshly edited using modern spelling. Critical introductions, wide-ranging annotation, and informative bibliographiesilluminate the play's cultural contexts and theatrical potential for reader and performer alike.'The series should reshape the canon in a number of significant areas. A splendid and imaginative project.' Anne Barton, Canbridge University
The Heart of the Hills' is a short dramatic story written by John Fox Jr. The story is a fictionalized version of a real-life feud during the late 19th century between two rural American families of the West Virginia, Hatfield and McCoy, which in this book are renamed Hawn and Honeycutt.
