Literary Biography

In the summer of 1879, the young writer Robert Louis Stevenson received a telegram from America. Fanny, a dear friend in California, was ill. Stevenson packed his bags and left his home in Scotland. When the steamer reached the east coast of America, his journey had just begun. Stevenson had little money, so he traveled across America the cheapest way: he went by train.

Tomie invites listeners to share in his childhood memories as he prays for his brand-new baby sister to get over pneumonia and finally learns to read.

Get ready to chase your dreams after listening to this thrilling children's biography of Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. A terrific source for a book report, Lin-Manuel Miranda: Lights Up tells the inspiring life story of the role model's transformation from a young boy with Broadway dreams to one of today's most respected artists.

To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John's evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong.

Twenty literary luminaries, ranging from Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare to Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain, are profiled in this entertaining and informative collection. Winner of A School Library Journal's Book of the Year Award, Lives of the Writers is both an indispensable reference tool and an exhilarating gossipfest. Author Kathleen Krull makes learning fun, painting realistic portraits of Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allan Poe, Frances Hodgson Burnett, the Brontë sisters, Emily Dickinson, E.B. White, Jack London, Murasaki Shikibu, Miguel de Cervantes, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen, and more. Krull serves up an outstanding introduction to the classics of literature for the whole family, while telling us all the real stories behind their writers.

Let’s face it: Talking about race can be difficult. It’s a slippery subject, rife with as many perspectives as there are people in the world. But laughter gets us talking. It has the power to break down barriers and draw us closer together. In Open Mic, acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins invites us to listen in as 10 authors for young adults - some familiar, some new - step up to the mic and share their stories about what it’s like growing up between cultures.

Did you know that Paul Laurence Dunbar originated such famous lines as "I know why the caged bird sings" and "We wear the mask that grins and lies"? From his childhood in poverty and his early promise as a poet through his struggles to find acceptance as a writer and his tumultuous romance with his wife, to his immense fame and his untimely death, Dunbar's story is one of triumph and tragedy.

From an acclaimed classicist comes a witty, unusual, and fascinating "biography" of Homer's fictional Bronze Age hero, Odysseus. In this entertaining book, Charles Beye fills out the story of this extraordinary figure while at the same time portraying Odysseus' evolution through the course of a strange and adventuresome life, at times so remote, at times so immediate in the contemporary perspective.

Tomie celebrates his sixth birthday in style, dresses up as Snow White for his first Halloween, celebrates holidays with his family, suffers through a bout of the chicken pox, and gets to stay up to see the new year in!

The author of over 200 books, Caldecott Medal winner Jane Yolen is beloved for her delightful children's stories. This Junior Library Guild Selection chronicles the life of Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen. Growing up poor, Hans struggles to bring his artistic vision to the world. In time, he became world-renowned, most especially for the wondrous fairy tales he so vividly imagined.

Gary Paulsen takes listeners along on his maiden voyage, proving that ignorance can be bliss. Also really stupid and incredibly dangerous. He tells of boats that owned him, good, bad, and beloved, and how they got him through terrifying storms that he survived by sheer luck. His spare prose conjures up shark surprises and killer waves as well as moonlight on the sea, and makes listeners feel what it’s like to sail under the stars or to lie at anchor in a tropical lagoon where dolphins leap, bathed in silver.

From her childhood in China to the moment she won her first National Book Award, literary icon Katherine Paterson shares the personal stories that inspired her children's books. Told with her trademark humor and heart, Paterson's tales reveal details about her life from her childhood with missionary parents, to living as a single woman in Japan, to raising four children in suburban Maryland with her minister husband.

Friedrich Schiller: Jugendliches Genie, Revolutionär, Dichter. Rüdiger Safranski entstaubt in seiner großen Schiller-Biographie eine der schwungvollsten Gestalten unserer Literatur. Friedrich Schiller läutete mit seinem Enthusiasmus die Epoche der deutschen Geistesgeschichte ein, die man später den "Deutschen Idealismus" genannt hat. Mit diesem großen Buch über Schillers Leben und Denken könnte seine Renaissance beginnen.

Molière est notre plus grand homme de théâtre, celui dont nous connaissons tous une pièce, une phrase, un mot, que nous étudions en classe, et qui nous émeut, nous fait rire plus de trois siècles plus tard. Il a façonné notre manière de parler : nous nous exprimons dans la langue de Molière. Nous nous sommes emparés de lui comme d'un monument, d'un patrimoine, et pourtant sa vie fascinante, en grande partie, nous échappe. Un livre audio savoureux pour découvrir sa vie, s'immerger dans son siècle et vivre quelques minutes près de lui...

Dramatic, lyrical, and beautiful, O Captain, My Captain tells the story of one of America’s greatest poets and how he was inspired by one of America’s greatest presidents.

As a child, Clive Staples Lewis imagined many things...heroic animals and knights in armor and a faraway land called Boxen. He even thought of a new name for himself - at four years old, he decided he was more of a Jack. As he grew up, though, Jack found that the real world was not as just as the one in his imagination. No magic could heal the sick or stop a war, and a bully’s words could pierce as sharply as a sword. So Jack withdrew into books and eventually became a well-known author for adults.

Cuando llegó a Estados Unidos, en 1921, Pura traía los cuentos folclóricos de su querido Puerto Rico. Al encontrar un nuevo hogar en la Biblioteca Pública de Nueva York como asistente bilingüe, convirtió sus historias populares en libros y esparció semillas de historias por todo el país.

A blockbuster illustrated book that captures what Americans love to read, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is the gorgeously-produced companion book to PBS's ambitious summer 2018 series.

What are America's best-loved novels? PBS will launch The Great American Read series with a two-hour special in May 2018 revealing America's 100 best-loved novels, determined by a rigorous national survey. Subsequent episodes will air in September and October. Celebrities and everyday Americans will champion their favorite novel and in the finale in late October, America's number one best-loved novel will be revealed.

The Great American Read: The Book of Books will present all 100 novels with fascinating information about each book, author profiles, a snapshot of the novel's social relevance, film or television adaptations, other books and writings by the author, and little-known facts. Also included are themed articles about banned books, the most influential book illustrators, reading recommendations, the best first-lines in literature, and more.

Beautifully designed with rare images of the original manuscripts, first-edition covers, rejection letters, and other ephemera, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is a must-have book for all book lovers.

This glorious biography of Maya Angelou’s life - from her traumatic childhood through her work as a freedom fighter and her triumphant rise as a poet - is a powerful tribute to a phenomenal woman.

Walt Whitman was a printer, journalist, editor, and schoolteacher. But today, he's recognized as one of America's founding poets, a man who changed American literature forever. Who Was Walt Whitman? follows his remarkable journey from a young New York printer to one of America's most beloved literary figures.