Literary Biography

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, and was raised by his grandmother, who told him many stories of the Black American experience and taught him to be proud of his race from a young age. With her guidance, Langston went on to become a talented writer in high school, creating dramatic plays, poetry, and articles for the school paper. His career as a writer would continue to blossom. Langston pioneered Jazz Poetry and published nearly twenty poetry books during his lifetime as well as novels, books for children, nonfiction books, and plays.

After the horrors of the First World War, Oxford looked like an Arcadia - a dreamworld - from which pain could be shut out. Soldiers arrived with pictures of the university fully formed in their heads and women finally won the right to earn degrees. Freedom meant reading beneath the spires and punting down the river with champagne picnics. But all was not quite as it seemed. Boys fresh from school settled into lecture rooms alongside men who had returned from the trenches with the beginnings of shellshock.

La biografía de una de las figuras más curiosas y relevantes de la literatura inglesa. De espíritu versátil e inquieto, éste notable homme de letres fue autor de novelas, cuentos, poemas, obras de teatro, ensayos, libros de viaje, pinturas, traducciones y crítica literaria, en donde expuso siempre su punto de vista sobre los efectos deshumanizadores de la modernidad y la industrialización, la salud emocional, la vitalidad, la espontaneidad, la sexualidad humana y el instinto.

When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, he likely had no idea that the story and its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, would remain so popular nearly two centuries later. Today, audiences still find themselves entertained by the story of a grumpy, selfish man who becomes a holiday hero after he learns generosity through the help of three spirits in Victorian-era England.

London, 1932. Thomas James Wise is the toast of the literary establishment. A prominent collector and businessman, he is renowned on both sides of the Atlantic for unearthing the most stunning first editions and bringing them to market. Pompous and fearsome, with friends in high places, he is one of the most powerful men in the field of rare books. One night, two young booksellers - one a dishevelled former communist, the other a martini-swilling fan of detective stories - stumble upon a strange discrepancy. It will lead them to suspect Wise and his books are not all they seem.

Growing pains are an essential part of teenage life, for better and for worse. Some “mistakes” turn into positive, life-changing experiences, and some apparent triumphs seem, in retrospect, like low points. Some first kisses leave you feeling on top of the world, and others can make you want to hide under a rock. In Dear Teen Me, your favorite YA authors - including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, Tom Angleberger, and Carrie Jones - revisit critical moments from their young lives....

Inspired by a true story. In 1825, in a remote Irish valley lying between the mountains and Flesk River of Killarney, three women are brought together by strange and troubling events. Nora Leahy, a widow, has lost her daughter and her husband in the same year and is now burdened with the care of her grandson, Michael. The boy cannot walk or speak, and Nora has kept him hidden from neighbours, who might see in his deformity evidence of supernatural interference.

Stan Lee is one of the most influential people in the comic book world. The memorable heroes he created, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, and Daredevil, helped build Marvel Comics into the publishing powerhouse we know today.

There are artists out there able to lift the spirits of the downtrodden, who point towards a better world with all they are. Sometimes, they do this in DIY punk style: raw, unplugged, and deeply human. Patrick Schneeweis, better known as Pat the Bunny, is an artist who chose the road less travelled, instinctively deeming it more honest and less controlling. Freer. He grew up in Vermont, where he found people liked his voice and the controversial topics he tackled, and by 16 years old, he had released his first album ‘Fire Hazard’.

It is 1964 and Maya Angelou is on her way back home, leaving behind her beloved - and now seriously teenage son Guy, to finish university in Ghana. America is pulsing with the challenge of change, the civil rights movement is in full swing and that's where Maya Angelou wants to be, working alongside her friends Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. In this marvellous account, Maya Angelou provides, with her customary wisdom, compassion and wit, a first-hand record of an extraordinarily exciting and tragic political period.

Known to most as Lemony Snicket, the tormented narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler spends his days writing—for children and adults; film and television; and, on occasion, the accordion. Tracing his life in books from his first encounter with Baudelaire at a local library, And Then? And Then? What Else? offers a witty, poignant exploration of reading, writing and why we tell stories.

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.

To understand England's greatest cricket player is to know what it takes to succeed. Alastair Cook is the greatest batsman to ever play for England, and as one of the most gifted players in the world, he knows that his triumphs are as important as the challenges and moments of resilience. Now, as he English cricket team reel from his dramatic retirement, Alastair tells his story: a close-up account of his last chapter, his 33rd and last Test hundred, an intimate tale of his life, his family, of the man he is today and the man he will be - after cricket.

The superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author - a woman very much ahead of her time - including her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos. Nancy Spain was one of the most celebrated - and notorious - writers and broadcasters of the '40s, '50s and '60s. Hilarious, controversial and brilliant, she lived openly as a lesbian (sharing a household with her two lovers and their various children) and was frequently litigated against for her newspaper columns - Evelyn Waugh successfully sued her for libel...twice.

A feminist landmark, The Golden Notebook tells the story of writer Anna Wulf and the crises she faces in her personal, political, and professional life. Confounded by writer's block, the ferociously independent Wulf explores her situation in four notebooks, one for each of the strands in her life. The Golden Notebook is the one in which, struggling to retain her sanity, she brings these strands together.

Explore the life and career of Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King-awarded author and illustrator Kadir Nelson.

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.

From imaginative child to visionary storyteller, Toni Morrison was a fiercely inspiring writer that helped change the world. This poetic book is part love letter and part biography, praising the power of this Nobel Prize winner. With its tender refrain, readers will know how much Morrison's stories -- and their own -- mean to the world. She was loved -- and so are they!

R. L. Stine has written hundreds of children's books, including the scary, creepy Goosebumps series. His books have inspired TV shows and movies. Learn more about Stine's life as a famous writer!

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.