My Generation
Title | My Generation PDF eBook |
Author | William Styron |
Publisher | Random House |
Total Pages | 657 |
Release | 2015-06-02 |
Genre | Literary Collections |
ISBN | 0812997050 |
A vital, illuminating collection of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner’s elegant, passionately engaged nonfiction My Generation is the definitive gathering of William Styron’s nonfiction, exposing the core of this greatly gifted, highly convivial, and profoundly serious artist from his literary emergence in the 1950s to his death in 2006. Here are fifty years of Styron’s essays, memoirs, reviews, op-eds, articles, eulogies, and speeches, reflecting the same brilliant style and informed thinking that he brought to his towering fiction and to a deeply committed public life. Including many newly collected and never-before-published items, this compendium ranges from the original mission statement of The Paris Review, which Styron helped found in 1953, to a 2001 tribute to his friend Philip Roth—creating an essential overview of arts and letters during the post–World War II years. In these pages, Styron writes vividly of childhood days in Tidewater Virginia spent going to movies, not reading books. (“It does not mean the death of literacy or creativity if one is drenched in popular culture at an early age.”) He recalls being among the group of soldiers who would have been sent to invade Japan and were saved by Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb, which Styron feels was the right choice, “even though its absolute rightness can never be proved.” And he writes as few others have about midlife battles with clinical depression, “a pain that is all but indescribable, and therefore to everyone but the sufferer almost meaningless.” Here, too, are Styron’s personal encounters with world leaders, fellow authors, and friends, each of whom comes memorably to life. Styron recalls sharing contraband Cuban cigars with JFK (“a naughty memento, a conversation piece with a touch of scandal”), getting lost in the snow with Robert Penn Warren, and party-hopping with the young James Jones (an experience he likens to “keeping company with a Roman emperor”). The beginnings of his masterpieces The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice are chronicled here, along with the controversy that greeted the former upon its 1967 publication. Throughout, Styron celebrates the men and women of his generation, whose lives were forged in the crucible of World War II. Whether he’s recounting a walk with his dog, musing on the Modern Library’s list of the hundred best English-language novels of the twentieth century, or contemplating America’s fraught racial legacy from his point of view as the grandson of a woman who owned slaves, William Styron writes always in urgent, finely calibrated prose. These fascinating pieces bring readers closer to this great writer and the world he observed, interacted with, and changed. Praise for My Generation “William Styron’s My Generation: Collected Nonfiction is both unsurpassably charming and unflinchingly honest, whether recounting the fallout from The Confessions of Nat Turner or reminiscing about the slave-owning grandmother who warned him never to forget he was a Southerner.”—Vogue “At its most accomplished, Styron’s non-fiction mixes a conscientious, richly traditional prose style with a strong current of fellow feeling, a certain awe at the human condition, which is what gives power to his best fiction. . . . Styron stood tall in his generation, and the best of him will stand up over time.”—USA Today “A must for every Styron fan’s library.”—BBC
A Slip of the Keyboard
Title | A Slip of the Keyboard PDF eBook |
Author | Terry Pratchett |
Publisher | Anchor |
Total Pages | 0 |
Release | 2015-09-01 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0804169225 |
A collection of essays and other non fiction from Terry Pratchett, spanning the whole of his writing career from his early years to the present day. Terry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of readers the world over with his bestselling Discworld series -- but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer's research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's non fiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf's love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him. With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself -- man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orangutans and Dignity in Dying. Snuff was the bestselling adult hardcover novel of 2011. A Blink of the Screen, Terry's short fiction collection, was also one of the bestselling hardcovers of 2012.
The Non-fiction Collection
Title | The Non-fiction Collection PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | Penguin Group |
Total Pages | 514 |
Release | 2007 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN |
Collection of non-fiction published by Penguin Books, India commemorating its twentieth year in the publishing industry.
Collected Nonfiction of Mark Twain, Volume 2
Title | Collected Nonfiction of Mark Twain, Volume 2 PDF eBook |
Author | Mark Twain |
Publisher | Everyman's Library |
Total Pages | 778 |
Release | 2016-11-15 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 110190772X |
The second of two hardcover volumes collecting the major nonfiction by the "father of American literature," including excerpts from The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, A Tramp Abroad, and Life on the Mississippi. Twain’s playful exuberance and remarkable storytelling gifts are on full display as he regales readers with real-life adventures in these rollicking, shrewd, and hilarious autobiographical works. In these pages, we follow him through his stint as a fledgling reporter out West to his attempt to navigate a steamboat on the Mississippi River, and all during his experiences as an irreverent and skeptical traveler through Europe and the Holy Land. Gleefully iconoclastic, whether he is puncturing the pretensions of others or aiming his satirical barbs squarely at himself, Twain also proves to be deeply compassionate, as fierce in his condemnation of injustice as he is skillful in mining the humor in human folly. Long hailed as “the Lincoln of our literature,” Twain harbored as rich and fertile a blend of contradictions as the dynamic nation he came to embody—and define.
Selected Non-Fictions
Title | Selected Non-Fictions PDF eBook |
Author | Jorge Luis Borges |
Publisher | Penguin Books |
Total Pages | 580 |
Release | 2000-11 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN |
This unique volume presents a Borges almost entirely unknown to American readers: his extraordinary non-fiction prose. Borges' unlimited curiosity and almost superhuman erudition become, in his essays, reviews, lectures, and political and cultural notes.
Selected Non Fiction Historical Reads : Spanish Papers/The Story of Mankind
Title | Selected Non Fiction Historical Reads : Spanish Papers/The Story of Mankind PDF eBook |
Author | Washington Irving;Hendrik Willem Van Loon |
Publisher | Prabhat Prakashan |
Total Pages | 805 |
Release | 2022-09-09 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
Library Lin's Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction
Title | Library Lin's Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction PDF eBook |
Author | Linda Maxie |
Publisher | Spoon Creek Press |
Total Pages | 368 |
Release | 2022-05-05 |
Genre | Reference |
ISBN |
Trust a librarian to help you find books you’ll want to read Library Lin’s Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction is a librarian’s A-list of nonfiction books organized by subject area—just like a library. Linda Maxie (Library Lin) combed through 65 best books lists going back a century. She reviewed tens of thousands of books, sorted them according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system, and selected an entire library’s worth for you to browse without leaving home. Here you’ll find • Summaries of outstanding titles in every subject • Suggestions for locating reading material specific to your needs and interests In this broad survey of all the nonfiction categories, you will find titles on everything from the A-bomb to Zen Buddhism. You might find yourself immersed in whole subject areas that you never thought you’d be interested in.