A self-portrait of a great writer. A Short Autobiography charts Fitzgerald's progression from exuberant and cocky with "What I think and Feel at 25", to mature and reflective with "One Hundred False Starts" and "The Death of My Father." Compiled and edited by Professor James West, this revealing collection of personal essays and articles reveals the beloved author in his own words.

"An engaging account about the way unhealthy entanglements can affect an actor’s life.." - Kirkus Reviews The life of actor/choreographer/musician Columbus Short has been punctuated with trauma that extends well beyond the plot lines of his previous role on the hit series Scandal. Short has lived many lives packed into one-from a family filled with turmoil to tumultuous love affairs and enough scandals of his own. But somewhere in the middle, Short's realization that there has to be a better way comes into full view. "Short Stories" not only details Columbus Short's journey from childhood to Hollywood, it shows how even the most checkered of pasts can create a different person with the right amount of will and drive, especially when it comes to fulfilling your true destiny.

Autobiography is one of the most popular of written forms. From Casanova to Benjamin Franklin to the Kardashians, individuals throughout history have recorded their own lives and experiences. These personal writings are central to the work of literary critics, philosophers, historians and psychologists, who have found in autobiographies from across the centuries not only an understanding of the ways in which lives have been lived, but the most fundamental accounts of what it means to be a self in the world. In this Very Short Introduction Laura Marcus defines what we mean by 'autobiography', and considers its relationship with similar literary forms such as memoirs, journals, letters, diaries, and essays. Analysing the core themes in autobiographical writing, such as confession, conversion and testimony; romanticism and the journeying self; Marcus discusses the autobiographical consciousness (and the roles played by time, memory and identity), and considers the relationship between psychoanalysis and autobiography. Exploring the themes of self-portraiture and performance, Marcus also discusses the ways in which fiction and autobiography have shaped each other. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Books contain countless tales--but what if Book told its own story? From clay tablets to e-readers, here is a quirky, kid-friendly look at the book. Books are one of humankind's greatest forms of expression, and now Book, in a witty, idiosyncratic voice, tells us the inside story. A wonderfully eccentric character with strong opinions and a poetic turn of phrase, Book tells of a journey from papyrus scrolls to medieval manuscripts to printed paper and beyond--pondering, along the way, many bookish things, including the evolution of the alphabet, the library (known to Egyptians as "the healing place of the soul"), and even book burning. With bold, black-and-white illustrations by Neil Packer, Book is a captivating work of nonfiction by one of England's leading poets.

This extraordinary new book by the British author, John Joss, will amaze, entertain and educate readers of all ages. Its 300 pages contain fifty remarkable 'incidents, ' each a riveting story in itself. INCIDENTS is a sweeping biographical chronicle of a venturesome, joyful and successful life. It moves, with never a dull page, from amusing and poignant childhood anecdotes to risking his life- flying military aircraft and gliders, racing on two and four wheels, and sailing the oceans. The breadth and depth of experience and the sheer audacity of this multi-faceted and enterprising man would be hard to equal by many men, combined. John Joss entered the Royal Navy in England at 16, took initial pilot training, but was near-fatally injured in a motorcycle accident while returning to his ship. Invalided from the Service, he went to work, writing initially for a motorcycle magazine, then for industry. He emigrated to America, working first for corporations, then freelance, writing about business, technology and military aviation and participating in the world technology business center, Silicon Valley. He has raced cars, motorcycles, dinghies and yachts, trodden London's West End stages, explored Mexico, worked in the Gulf of Mexico oil patch, flown the Space Shuttle Simulator, evaded a Soviet military spy in Washington, helped find the sunken nuclear submarine Thresher, flown with the Blue Angels, the Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force and written business plans for Silicon Valley startups. He became the first journalist-pilot to fly and write about the U-2 spy plane, dodged a minefield at Fort Irwin, California, wrote for major media, did radio commercials and documentary voice-overs, soared gliders in the Sierra Nevada, created a high-tech series for network radio, commentated at car and motorcycle racetracks, sailed around the world, penned twenty novels, nonfiction books, screenplays and plays, and fathered three daughters. Not boring. Just as he wished.