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From the publisher. An authorized portrait of the influential twentieth-century American writer draws on first-person accounts and Vonnegut's private letters while offering insight into his youth, the inspirations for his work, and his enduring literary impact. Kurt Vonnegut remains one of the most influential, controversial, and popular novelists of the twentieth century. While millions know him as a counterculture guru, antiwar activist, and satirist...

A fascinating look at the life of the author who created such modern classics as Carrie, IT, and The Shining. One of the most prolific and popular authors in the world today, Stephen King has become part of pop culture history. But who is the man behind those tales of horror, grief, and the supernatural? Where do these ideas come from? And what drives him to keep writing at a breakneck pace after a thirty year career? In this unauthorized biography,...

From his decision to leave school at fifteen to roam the world, to his recollections of life as a hobo on the Southern Pacific Railroad, as a cattle skinner in Texas, as a merchant seaman in Singapore and the West Indies, and as an itinerant bare-knuckled prizefighter across small-town America, here is Louis L'Amour's memoir of his lifelong love affair with learning--from books, from wandering, and from some remarkable men and women--that shaped him...

A revealing look at the power of speaking out, Writing in an Age of Silence describes Paretski’s coming of age in a time of great possibility, during the civil rights movement, the peace movement, and the women’s movement. Bestselling crime-writer Sarah Paretsky has won critical acclaim for her V.I. Warshawski novels, centered around one of the first and most popular female investigators in contemporary fiction. In this fascinating...

"In this spellbinding blend of memoir and insight, bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk shares stories and generous advice on what makes writing powerful and what makes for powerful writing. With advice grounded in years of careful study and a keenly observed life, Palahniuk combines practical advice and concrete examples from beloved classics, his own books, and a "kitchen-table MFA" culled from an evolving circle of beloved authors and artists, with...

Edward Abbey himself compiled this volume representing some of his greatest work-including selections from such novels as The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Brave Cowboy, and Black Sun, as well as a number of expressive and acerbic essays. Renowned for inspiring modern environmentalists-though his interests ranged as widely as the landscapes he loved-Abbey offers an entertaining introduction to his writing, including excerpts from the autobiographical Desert...

Born in Manchester, England, in 1900, growing up wasn't easy for Janet Taylor Caldwell. Her Scottish parents warned her that if she ever misbehaved at school, she'd be "thoroughly thrashed." Weekends at home were filled with church and chores. When her family immigrated to America in 1907, life only got tougher. Her father died soon after their arrival in upstate New York, and the family struggled financially. But her mother, Anna, was a firm believer...

First published in 1962, on the suggestion of his readers throughout his expansive writing career, this is the self-penned biography of Upton Sinclair, author of hundreds of novels, plays, homilies, diatribes and pamphlets. Written at the age 83, Sinclair at last allows his loyal readership to glean an in-depth look at the man who discovered the Jungle in Armours Meat Industry at 28, founded a Utopian co-operative in 1908, and who muckraked through...

Wherever you look, there's trouble and wonder, pain and beauty, restoration and darkness--sometimes all at once. Yet amid the confusion, if you look carefully, in nature or in the kitchen, in ordinariness or in mystery, beyond the emotion muck we all slog through, you'll find it eventually: a path, some light to see by, moments of insight, courage, or buoyancy. In other words, grace. Lamott knows and lives by this belief, most of the time. In these...