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The Gossamer Years
by Edward SeidenstickerKagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji. This frank autobiography diary reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. To impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful noblewoman of the Heian dynasty protests the marriage system of her time in one of Japanese literature's earliest attempts to portray difficult elements of the predominant social hierarchy. A classic work of early Japanese prose, The Gossamer Years offers a timeless and intimate glimpse into the culture of ancient Japan.
The Gossamer Years
by Edward SeidenstickerKagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji. This frank autobiography diary reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. To impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful noblewoman of the Heian dynasty protests the marriage system of her time in one of Japanese literature's earliest attempts to portray difficult elements of the predominant social hierarchy. A classic work of early Japanese prose, The Gossamer Years offers a timeless and intimate glimpse into the culture of ancient Japan.
Gospel Truth: On the Trail of the Historical Jesus
by Russell ShortoRussell Shorto meticulously investigates Christian history and the Bible&’s New Testament to reveal the true, historical Jesus Christ. For roughly two thousand years, the world has known only the biblical depiction of Jesus: the virgin birth, miraculous life, and resurrection. Recently, scholars have pursued the historical Jesus Christ by poring through texts, examining ancient documents, and even holding votes. They make a fresh attempt to answer some of history&’s greatest questions: Who was he? Where did he live? What did he think? And was the Bible&’s account true? In Gospel Truth, bestselling author Russell Shorto (The Island at the Center of the World) brings a journalist&’s eye to the life of Jesus Christ. Shorto looks into the Jesus Seminar, where historians seek and analyze evidence of the world&’s most famous carpenter&’s son. He compiles their research and ideas to create a composite biographical portrait of Yeshu, a man of ordinary beginnings who changed the world in extraordinary ways. A skillfully compiled biblical interpretation, Shorto shows &“a Jesus stripped of the unhistorical&” (Library Journal). The result will fascinate believers and nonbelievers alike.
The Gospel Side of Elvis
by Joe MoscheoGospel music was a significant part of not only who Elvis became as a man, but as an artist as well. As Elvis mania continues to consume generation after generation throughout the world, fans still crave new insights into the person of Elvis Presley. This book takes a look at his roots and the role of gospel in his foundational years, as well as the comfort, solace, and strength it offered him in the years of his meteoric rise in popularity. THE GOSPEL SIDE OF ELVIS is a rarely explored aspect of this American icon and one that reveals so much about the Elvis so many have yet to discover.
The Gospel of Trees: A Memoir
by Apricot IrvingIn this compelling, beautiful memoir, award-winning writer Apricot Irving recounts her childhood as a missionary’s daughter in Haiti during a time of upheaval—both in the country and in her home.Apricot Irving grew up as a missionary’s daughter in Haiti—a country easy to sensationalize but difficult to understand. Her father was an agronomist, a man who hiked alone into the hills with a macouti of seeds to preach the gospel of trees in a deforested but resilient country. Her mother and sisters, meanwhile, spent most of their days in the confines of the hospital compound they called home. As a child, this felt like paradise to Irving; as a teenager, the same setting felt like a prison. Outside of the walls of the missionary enclave, Haiti was a tumult of bugle-call bus horns and bicycles that jangled over hard-packed dirt, the clamor of chickens and cicadas, the sudden, insistent clatter of rain as it hammered across tin roofs and the swell of voices running ahead of the storm. As she emerges into womanhood, an already confusing process made all the more complicated by Christianity’s demands, Irving struggles to understand her father’s choices. His unswerving commitment to his mission, and the anger and despair that followed failed enterprises, threatened to splinter his family. Beautiful, poignant, and explosive, The Gospel of Trees is the story of a family crushed by ideals, and restored to kindness by honesty. Told against the backdrop of Haiti’s long history of intervention—often unwelcome—it grapples with the complicated legacy of those who wish to improve the world. Drawing from family letters, cassette tapes, journals, and interviews, it is an exploration of missionary culpability and idealism, told from within.
The Gospel According to Rev. Walt 'Baby' Love
by Walt Baby LoveFor more than three decades, Walt "Baby" Love has touched the lives of more than ten million listeners across the world. Every week he shares his triumphs, challenges, and soul-stirring moments through his award-winning radio programs. He has built a following of millions of listeners and repeatedly shattered racial barriers as a black man in an industry long dominated by whites. Yet this former army paratrooper with the famed 82nd Airborne Division, who served in Southeast Asia, also broke ground as a man of disciplined, abiding faith who refused to bow to corrupt influences. His enormously popular syndicated rhythm-and-blues show lost its spot on a Chicago radio station because Walt would not refrain from counseling his listeners to look to Jesus. Though beloved by his devoted listeners, Walt was often treated as an outcast by other African-American broadcasters and industry executives because of his outspoken and steadfast devotion to the Christian way of life. Still, both earthly and heavenly rewards have come in great abundance to the man raised by his great-grandparents in rural Pennsylvania. In The Gospel According to Rev. Walt "Baby" Love he offers reflections and inspirational thoughts drawn from his life. He shares how his religious convictions helped him survive and thrive in an industry he believed to be rife with corruption and ungodly influences. And he recounts the story of his progression of faith from a player of gospel and R&B music to an ordained minister and preacher of God's Word. Each chapter focuses on a Bible verse, reflecting on its significance to him and guiding you on how to incorporate its teachings into your own daily life. An uplifting story of faith, family, and forgiveness in the face of God's plan, The Gospel According to Rev. Walt "Baby" Love is inspirational reading at its best.
The Gospel According to Paul
by Jonathan BigginsMy fellow irrelevant Australians. Never, in the history of our democracy, has Australian political life been in such a parlous state. There are people living in this country who have never seen true political leadership, having been governed in recent times by the dullest, most sanctimonious, hypocritical choir of patsies. This book will give them a woefully overdue idea of what a real leader looks like.Leadership is not like a can of Popeye's spinach - you have to earn it. And earn it I did. And I am going to tell you how.In The Gospel According to Paul, writer and satirist Jonathan Biggins draws on his award-winning play to harness the eviscerating wit, wisdom and confidence of Keating, showing us the evolution of Paul John Keating, from Bankstown to the Lodge and beyond. Almost the autobiography Keating said he would never write, it is a timely reminder of the political leadership we are sorely missing.
The Gospel According to Luke
by Steve Lukather Paul ReesNo one explodes one of the longest-held misconceptions of music history better than Steve Lukather and his band Toto. The dominant pop-culture sound of the late-1970s and '80s was not in fact the smash and sneer of punk, but a slick, polished amalgam of rock and R&B that was first staked out on Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees. That album was shaped in large part by the founding members of Toto, who were emerging as the most in-demand elite session muso-crew in LA, and further developed on the band's self-titled three-million-selling debut smash of 1978. A string of hits followed for the band going into the '80s and beyond. Running parallel to this, as stellar session players, Lukather and band-mates David Paich, Jeff Porcaro and Steve Porcaro were also the creative linchpins on some of the most successful, influential and enduring records of the era. In The Gospel According to Luke, Lukather tells the Toto story: how a group of high school friends formed the band in 1977 and went on to sell more than 40 million records worldwide. He also lifts the lid on what really went on behind the closed studio doors and shows the unique creative processes of some of the most legendary names in music: from Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks and Elton John to Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Don Henley, Roger Waters and Aretha Franklin. And yet, Lukather's extraordinary tale encompasses the dark side of the American Dream.Engaging, incisive and often hilarious, The Gospel According to Luke is no ordinary rock memoir. It is the real thing . . .
The Gospel According to Luke
by Steve Lukather Paul ReesNo one explodes one of the longest-held misconceptions of music history better than Steve Lukather and his band Toto. The dominant pop-culture sound of the late-1970s and '80s was not in fact the smash and sneer of punk, but a slick, polished amalgam of rock and R&B that was first staked out on Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees. That album was shaped in large part by the founding members of Toto, who were emerging as the most in-demand elite session muso-crew in LA, and further developed on the band's self-titled three-million-selling debut smash of 1978. A string of hits followed for the band going into the '80s and beyond. Running parallel to this, as stellar session players, Lukather and band-mates David Paich, Jeff Porcaro and Steve Porcaro were also the creative linchpins on some of the most successful, influential and enduring records of the era. In The Gospel According to Luke, Lukather tells the Toto story: how a group of high school friends formed the band in 1977 and went on to sell more than 40 million records worldwide. He also lifts the lid on what really went on behind the closed studio doors and shows the unique creative processes of some of the most legendary names in music: from Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks and Elton John to Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Don Henley, Roger Waters and Aretha Franklin. And yet, Lukather's extraordinary tale encompasses the dark side of the American Dream.Engaging, incisive and often hilarious, The Gospel According to Luke is no ordinary rock memoir. It is the real thing . . .
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
by José SaramagoA fictional account of the life of Christ &“illuminated by ferocious wit, gentle passion, and poetry&”—from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Skylight (Los Angeles Times Book Review). For José Saramago, the life of Jesus Christ and the story of his Passion were things of this earth: a child crying, a gust of wind, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat or the bark of a dog, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. The Holy Family reflects the real complexities of any family, but this is realism filled with vision, dream, and omen. Saramago&’s deft psychological portrait of a savior who is at once the Son of God and a young man of this earth is an expert interweaving of poetry and irony, spirituality and irreverence. The result is nothing less than a brilliant skeptic&’s wry inquest into the meaning of God and of human existence. &“Enough to assure [Saramago] a place in the universal library and in human memory.&”—The Nation &“Fiction that engages the mind as well as the spirit.&”—Kirkus Reviews &“Mixes magic, myth, and reality into a potent brew.&”—Booklist Praise for José Saramago &“The greatest writer of our time.&”—Chicago Tribune &“A literary master.&”—The Boston Globe &“Saramago is the most tender of writers . . . With a clear-eyed and compassionate acknowledgment of things as they are, and a quality that can only be termed wisdom. We should be grateful when it is handed to us in such generous measure.&”—The New York Times &“Saramago&’s fiction operates in a realm not far from fable: the territory of Kafka, Gogol, and Borges.&”—Los Angeles Times
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
by José Saramago Giovanni PontieroAn extremely provocative and unconventional novelization of Christ's life by a Nobel-laureate.
The Gospel According to Chris Moyles: The Story of a Man and His Mouth
by Chris MoylesMotor mouth. Loud Mouth. Tubby DJ. Overpaid ego.What is the truth? Who is Chris Moyles? And what does he have to say for himself when he's not on the radio? Who is this man they call 'The Saviour of Radio 1'?In The Gospel According to Chris Moyles, Chris dissects the world around him and tackles all sorts of subjects; from interviewing the world's most famous celebrities, to trying to find a parking space in his own street. But you'll also get to meet his family and friends and learn about how he went from teenage DJ on a psychiatric hospital radio show to become the nation's favourite breakfast show DJ on BBC Radio 1. His is a life lived on and off air. And this book is a combination of both. It's funny, honest and gives Chris a platform to talk about his favourite subject... himself.Ego? What ego?
The Goshawk
by T. H. WhiteThe Goshawk is a memoir by T. H. White, the author of The Once and Future King, chronicling multiple attempts, with various degrees of success, to acquire and train a Goshawk, a large bird of prey. White is a novice at the start of the book, and he brings the reader along with him as he slowly learns how to tame the fierce, fearless predators. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
The Goshawk: With a new foreword by Helen Macdonald
by T. H. White'No hawk can be a pet. There is no sentimentality. In a way, it is the psychiatrist's art. One is matching one's mind against another mind with deadly reason and interest. One desires no transference of affection, demands no ignoble homage or gratitude. It is a tonic for the less forthright savagery of the human heart.'First published in 1951, T.H. White's memoir describes with searing honesty his attempt to train a wild goshawk, a notoriously difficult bird to master. With no previous experience and only a few hopelessly out-of-date books on falconry as a guide, he set about trying to bend the will of his young bird Gos to his own. Suffering setback after setback, the solitary and troubled White nonetheless found himself obsessively attached to the animal he hoped would one day set him free.Read by Simon Vance(p) 2015 Blackstone Audio
Gorsuch: The Judge Who Speaks for Himself
by John GreenyaLearn all about Neil Gorsuch, the youngest judge to be nominated to the Supreme Court in twenty-five years, with this comprehensive and fascinating biography.When forty-nine-year-old Neil Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump, he was told by a senator, “We need to know what’s in your heart.” Now, acclaimed author John Greenya seeks to answer that question with this captivating book. Born in Colorado, Gorsuch remains somewhat of a mystery to Democrats and Republicans alike. Based on intense research and interviews with people who have known Gorsuch in all periods of his life, both his opponents and his friends—from his early work as a lawyer and his year as a Justice Department official, to his ten-and-a-half years on the Federal bench, this is the best way to learn more about the conservative replacement to Justice Antonin Scalia.
Gorillas in the Mist
by Dian FosseyDian Fossey's classic account of four gorilla families - one of the most important books ever written about our connection to the natural worldFor thirteen years Dian Fossey lived and worked with Uncle Bert, Flossie, Beethoven, Pantsy and Digit in the remote rain forests of the volcanic Virunga Mountains in Africa, establishing an unprecedented relationship with these shy and affectionate beasts.In her base camp, 10,000 feet above sea-level, she struggled daily with rain, loneliness and the ever-constant threat of poachers who slaughtered her beloved gorillas with horrifying ferocity. African adventure, personal quest and scientific study, GORILLAS IN THE MIST is a unique and intimate glimpse into a vanishing world and a vanishing species.
Gorilla Tactics: How to Save a Species
by Greg CummingsGorillas are among the most recognizable of the large charismatic mammals, but climate change and poaching has brought them to the brink of extinction. Greg Cummings was the executive director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for seventeen years. He shares his fascinating experiences as a "wildlife Robin Hood"—raising money from the rich and famous and redistributing it to endangered gorillas and their habitats. He met and enlisted the help of celebrities such as Sigourney Weaver, Arthur C. Clark, Douglas Adams, and Leonardo DiCaprio. This thirty-year worldwide journey moves from boardrooms in Manhattan and London to mountain treks in Rwanda and Congo.Gorilla Tactics is sure to enchant readers with Greg's unique experiences, while sharing insight into the work it takes to save a species from extinction.
The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)
by Randy FertelThe Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak is the story of two larger-than-life characters and the son whom their lives helped to shape. Ruth Fertel was a petite, smart, tough-as-nails blonde with a weakness for rogues, who founded the Ruth's Chris Steak House empire almost by accident. Rodney Fertel was a gold-plated, one-of-a-kind personality, a railbird-heir to wealth from a pawnshop of dubious repute just around the corner from where the teenage Louis Armstrong and his trumpet were discovered. When Fertel ran for mayor of New Orleans on a single campaign promise-buying a pair of gorillas for the zoo-he garnered a paltry 308 votes. Then he purchased the gorillas anyway! These colorful figures yoked together two worlds not often connected-lazy rice farms in the bayous and swinging urban streets where ethnicities jazzily collided. A trip downriver to the hamlet of Happy Jack focuses on its French-Alsatian roots, bountiful tables, and self-reliant lifestyle that inspired a restaurant legend. The story also offers a close-up of life in the Old Jewish Quarter on Rampart Street-and how it intersected with the denizens of “Back a' Town,” just a few blocks away, who brought jazz from New Orleans to the world. The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak is a New Orleans story, featuring the distinctive characters, color, food, and history of that city-before Hurricane Katrina and after. But it also is the universal story of family and the full magnitude of outsize follies leavened with equal measures of humor, rage, and rue.
Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother's Love
by Zack McdermottThe story of a young man fighting to recover from a devastating psychotic break and the mother who refuses to give up on him Zack McDermott, a 26-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed, Truman Show-style, as part of an audition for a TV pilot. This was it - his big dreams were finally coming true. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from "The Producer" to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to Bellevue Hospital. So begins the story of Zack's freefall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often darkly funny struggle to claw his way back to sanity, regain his identity, and rebuild some semblance of a stable life. It's a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack's dark world. Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy Seal and his talking stuffed monkey, and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird's help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a woman who can love him back, bipolar and all. Written with raw emotional power, humor, and tenderness, GORILLA AND THE BIRD is a bravely honest account of a young man's unraveling and the relationship that saves him.
Gorilla and the Bird: A memoir of madness and a mother's love
by Zack McDermott'One of the gems of the year' - Michele Magwood, Sunday Times (Books LIVE SA)The story of a young man fighting to recover from a devastating psychotic break and the mother who refuses to give up on him.Zack McDermott, a twenty-six-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed as part of an audition for a TV pilot. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from 'The Producer' to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to hospital. So begins the story of Zack's free fall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often darkly funny struggle to claw his way back to sanity, regain his identity, and rebuild some semblance of a stable life. It's a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, bighearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack's dark world. Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy SEAL and his talking stuffed monkey and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird's help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a woman who can love him back, bipolar and all. Written with raw emotional power, humor, and tenderness, Gorilla and the Bird is a bravely honest account of a young man's unraveling and the relationship that saves him.
Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture
by John Capouya“Finally, the tawdry but glamorous details behind the legend of one of my first childhood heroes. Gorgeous George is such a good read I felt like bleaching my hair afterwards.” — John Waters“Capouya’s biography vividly re-creates Gorgeous George’s antics and the world in which he had more shock value than a numerically named wideout could hope for today.” — Sports Illustrated“Compelling. . . . The tension between George’s excess and his era’s reserve is one of many in his story, and those are what make Capouya’s cultural anthropology so interesting.” — Newsweek“Terrifically, tantalizingly weird. . . . GORGEOUS GEORGE does leave the words of one long-ago sports reporter ringing in your ears: ‘Oh, my, what a strut. If only this man had been born in the barnyard. What a rooster he would have made.’” — New York Times“...[Capouya] delivers a solid, entertaining book about a long-forgotten character and a peculiar slice of American history.” — Entertainment Weekly“Capouya vividly portrays the ins and outs of wrestling and [Wagner’s] own struggle to maintain the ‘Gorgeousness’ of a public life in his private life as well.” — Publishers Weekly“In GORGEOUS GEORGE, Capouya combines extensive research and interviews with a colorful writing style and presents Gorgeous George as a cultural pioneer...Capouya’s words are as fast-paced as the action in the ring and connect with the reader as solidly as a dropkick to George’s kisser.” — Tampa Tribune“Compulsively entertaining...” — Penthouse“You see the title of John Capouya’s biography of Gorgeous George - which claims the flamboyant wrestler “created pop culture” - and you are struck by its audacity. A wrestler responsible for something that important? Impossible. But as you go through the pages, you can’t help but agree.” — New York Post“Gorgeous George invented a style of showmanship that was imitated by entertainers and athletes. With this biography, John Capouya has done an excellent job in introducing the most inventive of sport’s anti-heroes to a new generation of readers.” — Ishmael Reed (novelist, poet, and cultural critic)NO DOUBT OF IT: GEE GEE’S THE BIGGEST THING IN TV — Washington Post, 1949“I don’t know if I was made for television, or television was made for me.” — Gorgeous George“Liberace stole my entire act, including the candelabra!” — Gorgeous George“One can explain the American condition as an eternal, televised battle between the Babyface and the Heel. That said, there’s never been a heel like Gorgeous George. John Capouya has done a fine job here, excavating a forgotten life and explaining why it mattered.” — Mark Kriegel, author of Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich; National Columnist for FOXSports.com“Like the man himself, this inside look at a legendary performer challenges the reader to think beyond the wrestling ring. We give it four suplexes out of five.” — Pro Wrestling Illustrated“Former Newsweek editor John Capouya reveals the gory underworld of pre-WWE wrestling and shows how the Gorgeous One inspired James Brown, who loved George’s robes, and Muhammad Ali, whose “I am the prettiest” echoed the wrestler’s own vainglorious boasts.” — Los Angeles Magazine“As a show-biz bio and, for those who subscribe to a loose definition of sport, a sports bio, too, this is great stuff, entertaining and well referenced.” — Booklist
Gorge: My Journey Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds
by Kara Richardson WhitelyKara knew she could reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. She had done it once before. That's why, when she failed in a second attempt, it brought her so low. As she struggled with food addiction and looked for ways to cope with feelings of failure and shame, Kara's weight shot to more than 300 pounds. Deep in her personal gorge, Kara realized the only way out was up. She resolved to climb the mountain again-and this time, she would reach the summit without waiting for her plus-sized status to disappear.Gorge: My Journey Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds is the raw story of Kara's ascent from the depths of self-doubt to the top of the world. Her difficult but inspiring trek speaks to every woman who has struggled with her self-image or felt that food was controlling her life. Honest and unforgettable, Kara's journey is one of intense passion, endurance, and self-acceptance. In Gorge, Kara shows that big women can do big things.
Gorey Secrets: Artistic and Literary Inspirations behind Divers Books by Edward Gorey
by Malcolm WhyteEdward Gorey (1925–2000) was a fascinating and prolific author and artist. Of the one hundred delightful and fascinating books that Gorey wrote and illustrated, he rarely revealed their specific inspirations or their meanings. Where did his intriguing ideas come from? In Gorey Secrets: Artistic and Literary Inspirations behind Divers Books by Edward Gorey, Malcolm Whyte utilizes years of thorough research to tell an engrossing, revealing story about Gorey’s unique works. Exploring a sampling of Gorey’s eclectic writings, from The Beastly Baby and The Iron Tonic to The Curious Sofa and Dracula, Whyte uncovers influences of Herman Melville, Agatha Christie, Edward Lear, the I Ching, William Hogarth, Rene Magritte, Hokusai, French cinema, early toy books, eighteenth-century religious tracts for children, and much more.With an enlightening preface by Gorey collaborator and scholar Peter F. Neumeyer, Gorey Secrets brings important, uncharted insight into the genius of Edward Gorey and is a welcome addition to collections of both the seasoned Gorey reader and those who are just discovering his captivating books.
Gore Vidal: A Biography
by Fred KaplanThis &“fascinating&” biography of an iconic American author and public intellectual &“is so full of incident and celebrity . . . a pageant of entertaining stories&” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Few writers of recent memory have distinguished themselves in so many fields, and so consummately, as Gore Vidal. A prolific novelist, Vidal also wrote for film and theater, and became a classic essayist of his own time, delivering prescient analyses of American society, politics, and culture. Known for his rapier wit and intelligence, Vidal moved with ease among the cultural elite—his grandfather was a senator, he was intimate with the Kennedys, and one of his best friends was Tennessee Williams. For this definitive biography, Fred Kaplan was given access to Vidal&’s papers and letters. The result is an insightful and entertaining portrait of an exceptional and mercurial writer.
Gore Vidal: Writer Against the Grain
by Jay PariniA collection of critical essays from various literary critics.