Showing results for "Afterlife" in Art & Literature

'Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and think of me,' wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan: she remains one of the most confounding—and contested—writers of the twentieth century. In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth.

This is a book about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry. This is a book about a poet – W. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a...

Megan Marshall's innovative books, including The Peabody Sisters and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Margaret Fuller, are treasured works of American biography. In the richly absorbing essays of After Lives, Marshall turns her narrative gift to her own art, life, and the people in it. In each of...

Becoming Shakespeare begins with his death in 1616 and relates the fascinating story of his unlikely transformation from provincial playwright to universal Bard. Unlike later literary giants, Shakespeare created no stir when he died. Though he'd once had a string of hit plays, he had been retired in the country for six years, and only his family, friends, and business partners seemed to care that he was gone.

'Emily Ogden does not flinch from the obscure and sometimes horrifying recesses of Poe’s psychosis. Her enthralling psychological portrait of the tormented artist is drawn with panache, and great compassion' - Sue Prideaux 'A wonderfully engaging account of Poe’s troubled life and work...

A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year Fresh Air Top 10 Book of the Year This critically acclaimed, “superb” (The Washington Post) biography of one of the most influential and mythologized literary figures of the 20th century examines both Gertrude Stein’s life and her partner’s...