Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his early years, yet through sheer force of character, he was able to overcome these obstacles to become a leading spokesman for his people. In this book, Douglass provides graphic descriptions of his childhood and horrifying...

The made-in-Hollywood marriage of Ronald and Nancy Reagan was the partnership that made him president. Nancy understood how to foster his strengths and compensate for his weaknesses-- and made herself a place in history. Tumulty shows how Nancy's confidence developed, and reveals new details surrounding Reagan's tumultuous presidency that shows how Nancy became one of the most influential first ladies in history. -- adapted from jacket

Though Bill Clinton has been out of office since 2001, public fascination with him continues unabated. Many books about Clinton have been published in recent years, but shockingly, no single-volume biography covers the full scope of Clinton's life from the cradle to the present day, not even Clinton's own account, My Life. More troubling still, books on Clinton have tended to be highly polarized, casting the former president in an overly positive...

"In 1922, Howard Carter peered into Tutankhamun's tomb for the first time, the only light coming from the candle in his outstretched hand. Urged to tell what he was seeing through the small opening he had cut in the door to the tomb, the Egyptologist famously replied, 'I see wonderful things.' Carter's fabulous discovery is just one of the many spellbinding stories told in Three Stones Make a Wall. Written by Eric Cline, an archaeologist with more...

In this memoir, the author writes about the evolution of Cosmo Kramer, his character on Seinfeld, sharing insecurities and successes he experienced creating the character. He discusses his childhood with his schizophrenic grandmother and single mother, and his drive to unravel the mystery of his father. He tells of his early passion for theater and performance, his tour of duty in the army, his interest in psychology and religion, and his days coming...

When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming a grown up, journalist and former Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In this book, she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage, finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod-Stewart themed house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop is the only man you've ever been able to rely on, and finding...

In his probing and revelatory biography of one of the great prose stylists of this century, Michael Shelden breaks new ground in the evocation of George Orwell's personal life and in our understanding of his art. Based on original interviews, previously undiscovered letters and documents, and astute literary detective work by Shelden, Orwell is the major biography of one of the great yet elusive literary figures of our time. The Cold War helped make...

Alfonso Scirocco is the author of many books on modern Italian history. From 1966 to 2000, he was professor of humanities at University Frederick II in Naples, Italy. What adventure novelist could have invented the life of Giuseppe Garibaldi? The revolutionary, soldier, politician, and greatest figure in the fight for Italian unification, Garibaldi (1807-1882) brought off almost as many dramatic exploits in the Americas as he did in Europe, becoming...

The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional...

Over fifty years after her death, Simone Weil (1909-1943) remains one of the most searching religious inquirers and political thinkers of the twentieth century. Albert Camus said she had a "madness for truth." She rejected her Jewishness and developed a strong interest in Catholicism, although she never joined the Catholic church. Both an activist and a scholar, she constantly spoke out against injustice and aligned herself with workers, with the...