Showing titles in Memoirs, Diaries & Correspondence

Jack Kerouac’s archive is vast. Throughout his life he was constantly writing, and he meticulously saved and catalogued his material. The result is that beyond the work published in his lifetime there has been a rich stream of posthumous writing that is far from tapped. This collection of previously unpublished writing culled from the Kerouac archive, and as a companion to Paul Maher Jr.'s Becoming Kerouac, spans Kerouac’s adult life, from a journal written at age seventeen to autobiographical reflections a few years before his death.

A meditative and inspiring diary of Derek Jarman's famous garden at Dungeness. In 1986 Derek Jarman discovered he was HIV positive and decided to make a garden at his cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness. Facing an uncertain future, he nevertheless found solace in nature, growing all manner of plants. While some perished beneath wind and sea-spray, others flourished, creating brilliant, unexpected beauty in the wilderness. Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life. 

In Letters of Note: Cats, Shaun Usher collects together the most engaging missives that celebrate, eulogise, rail against and analyse the idiosyncratic ways of our feline companions. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Danny Huston, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Helen McCrory, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Mangan, Miriam Margolyes, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson, Mark Strong and Meera Syal.

The extant letters of Pliny, written between AD 97 and 112, give us a unique insight into Imperial Rome under the early Antonine emperors. Organised into 10 books, the letters reflect a wide range of topics, mirroring Pliny’s own public and private interests. Among many other subjects, the letters also include an eye-witness account of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, with the final book containing the exchange of letters between the writer (whose career culminated as Governor of Bithynia) and the emperor Trajan. 

From sickly child to pioneering Victorian explorer, Isabella Bird defied convention. After back surgery in 1850 and the recommendation of life in the open air, she finally looked her malaise and her pain in the eye and set off across the world completely alone. In Colorado she covered 800 miles on horseback, climbing mountains, wrangling cattle, sleeping in snow and finding herself drawn to a violent, one-eyed outlaw with a soft spot for poetry, known as ‘Mountain Jim’.

Questa storia comincia una sera d’inverno, il 7 gennaio 1978. Davanti a una sede del Movimento sociale italiano nel quartiere Appio Latino, a Roma, vengono uccisi a colpi d’arma da fuoco due attivisti di destra. Da quel momento, i morti di Acca Larentia diventano icone intoccabili del neofascismo. Questa storia ricomincia il 30 aprile 1987, quando viene arrestato Mario Scrocca, un militante di estrema sinistra. Secondo gli inquirenti, Scrocca avrebbe fatto parte del commando che colpì ad Acca Larentia.

Der Brief an den Vater ist ein 1919 verfasster, niemals abgeschickter Brief Franz Kafkas an seinen Vater. Er wurde postum 1952 in der Neuen Rundschau veröffentlicht und ist ein bevorzugter Text für psychoanalytische und biographische Studien über Kafka.

Nachdem Gottfried Keller durch Konfrontation mit der Realität zur Einsicht gelangte, dass der Beruf des Landschaftsmalers seiner Erwartungshaltung bezüglich eines regelmäßigen und sicheren Einkommens nicht genügte, ebnete eine Laune des Schicksals ihm einen anderen Lebensweg. Aus Langeweile schreibt Keller ein paar Verse, die überraschenderweise sogar veröffentlicht werden und zwar nicht im Eigenverlag.

Manchmal gebären die widrigsten und unmöglichsten Umstände, die man schlicht nicht erfinden kann, einen Autoren, dessen Literatur den Menschen den Atem verschlägt. Der unmögliche Fall, der so absurd klingt, dass er nur wahr sein kann. Ständige Geldnöte, Verurteilung zum Tode, mehrjährige Gefängnisstrafe in angeketteter Einzelhaft, Verbot des Aufenthalts in Moskau und in Sankt Petersburg, Spielsucht, um ein paar der Schwierigkeiten zu erwähnen, welche das Schicksal letztendlich zu Voraussetzungen umwandelte, die Dostojewski in die Lage versetzten zu einem Titanen der Welt-Literatur zu werden.

23½ Ways to Make a Girl Fall for You is arguably the most incorrect piece of work ever written. Eclipsing even Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, this book is a huge mathematical error. However, once you can bypass the glaring mistakes, which only end two minutes after the book is over, there is plenty of information to be gleaned by the novice male lover-to-be. Although very little of that information will be helpful, I'm sure you'll all join me in saying that the effort was there.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord.

On 16 August 1952, Ian Fleming wrote to his wife, Ann, "My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold". And he did write golden words: 14 best-selling James Bond books and an equally energetic flow of letters to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, friends and critics, charting 007's progress....

Auteurs classiques utilisant leur plume pour vivre, personnages historiques entrés dans la légende, tous sont des hommes et femmes qui se sont un jour laissés éprendre... Derrière leur vie sociale, publique et parfois mondaine se cachent des êtres qui ont correspondu avec amour et passion avec l'élue de leur cœur. Retrouvez ici les mots que s'échangèrent les amants passionnées que furent Alfred de Musset et Georges Sand, Victor Hugo et Juliette Drouet puis Mlle Foucher, Henri IV et Gabrielle d'Estrée, Benjamin Constant et Mme de Staël, Denis Diderot et Mlle Volant.

Kurt Vonnegut’s eldest daughter, Edith, was cleaning out her mother’s attic when she stumbled upon a dusty, aged box. Inside, she discovered an unexpected treasure: more than 200 love letters written by Kurt to Jane, spanning the early years of their relationship.

This is the gripping, urgent and moving diary of young Ukrainian refugee Yeva Skalietska. It follows twelve days in Ukraine that changed 12-year-old Yeva's life forever. She was woken in the early hours to the terrifying sounds of shelling. Russia had invaded Ukraine, and her beloved Kharkiv home was no longer the safe haven it should have been. It was while she and her granny were forced to seek shelter in a damp, cramped basement that Yeva decided to write down her story. And it is a story that the world needs to hear.

John le Carré was one of the greatest novelists of his generation but also had an extraordinary life, from his childhood with a con man father to his inimitable career as a writer. From his involvement in the Cold War, time in Berlin, travels to Vietnam and engagement with world leaders, his experiences were truly remarkable. This collection of letters reveals John le Carré—the man, the writer and his world—for the first time and most intimately.

Rapidi, pastosi, materici come le pennellate di un pittore informale, i capitoli che compongono questa autobiografia, attraversano il Novecento più colto e avventuroso. Fra una risata irriverente e qualche nostalgia, Ezio Frigerio ricorda la sua lunga esistenza con una sorprendente lucidità sentimentale. Nato da famiglia benestante comasca durante il fascismo, l’autore non esita a sorridere malignamente della buona borghesia locale.

Die tief reichende Freundschaft, in welcher die zwei bekanntesten Dichterfürsten aus deutschsprachigen Landen miteinander verbunden waren, begann laut einigen Quellen alles andere als günstig, da beim ersten Treffen der beiden Goethe Schiller weder erkannte noch diesem irgendwelche Beachtung schenkte. Das änderte sich mit der Zeit, nachdem sich Goethe näher über Schillers Werk informierte und beide in regen Gedankenaustausch traten, besonders in vorliegender Briefwechsel-Reihe. 

Die Bühnenstücke des Heinrich von Kleist gehören nach wie vor zum festen Repertoire aller großen Theaterhäuser weltweit. Im direkten Schriftverkehr mit Angehörigen, Freunden, ehemaligen Weggefährten und und und offenbart sich nicht nur der Mensch Kleist mit seinen Bedürfnissen, Wünschen, Ansichten und Hoffnungen, sondern auch ein sehr außergewöhnlicher Intellekt und unglaublich reger Geist.

Here are some of the best of Churchill’s letters, many of a more personal and intimate nature, presented in chronological order, with a preface to each letter explaining the context. The recipients include a vast range of people, including his schoolmaster, his American grandmother and former President Eisenhower. They are taken from within the Churchill Archive in Cambridge, where there is a mass of Churchill’s correspondence. Several of the letters included have never appeared in book form before.