The first full biography for over twenty-five years of one of the great, and now once more very widely read, English novelists. 'Likely to be the standard biography for a long time.' Wall Street Journal

Winner of the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2020 in Nonfiction A resonant biography of America’s most celebrated novelist of the Great Depression. The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, Mad at the World illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Pulitzer Prize finalist William Souder explores Steinbeck’s long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. Angered by the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants who were starving even as they toiled to harvest California’s limitless bounty, fascinated by the guileless decency of the downtrodden denizens of Cannery Row, and appalled by the country’s refusal to recognize the humanity common to all of its citizens, Steinbeck took a stand against social injustice—paradoxically given his inherent misanthropy—setting him apart from the writers of the so-called "lost generation." A man by turns quick-tempered, compassionate, and ultimately brilliant, Steinbeck could be a difficult person to like. Obsessed with privacy, he was mistrustful of people. Next to writing, his favorite things were drinking and womanizing and getting married, which he did three times. And while he claimed indifference about success, his mid-career books and movie deals made him a lot of money—which passed through his hands as quickly as it came in. And yet Steinbeck also took aim at the corrosiveness of power, the perils of income inequality, and the urgency of ecological collapse, all of which drive public debate to this day. Steinbeck remains our great social realist novelist, the writer who gave the dispossessed and the disenfranchised a voice in American life and letters. Eloquent, nuanced, and deeply researched, Mad at the World captures the full measure of the man and his work.

"The best single volume on Berryman's life and work". -- Kirkus Reviews

The lives of the Romantic poets have been examined mainly through the evidence they have left behind: letters, journals, diaries, and their own self-revealing poems and essays. In the case of William Wordsworth, that evidence is massive, but it often obscures the real person behind the writings. In this fascinating account, Kenneth R. Johnston portrays a Wordsworth different in crucial ways from the one that the poet intended us to know. Taking advantage of unprecedented access to archives, family papers and intimate letters, he reveals, for example, the poet's complex relationship with his sister Dorothy; the true story of his affair with Annette Vallon during his year in France in 1791-92, the illegitimate child he fathered with her, and the impact of her frank eroticism on his poetry; and, most astonishing of all, Wordsworth's likely spy missions for the newly formed British Secret Service in Germany and at home. This brilliantly insightful biography is the first to break through the carefully crafted but frequently misleading accounts of his youth that Wordsworth created in his conservative later years. The Hidden Wordsworth reveals the radical young poet whose fiery intellect revolutionized English poetry.

The perfect balance of science and storyBrief chapters are written like science news articles, combining compelling science with intriguing stories. The Second Edition features NEW stories on exciting topics such as CRISPR and the human microbiome, and expanded coverage of the course's most important content areas. Biology Now is written by an author team made up of a science writer and two experienced teachers. Expanded pedagogy in the book and online encourages students to think critically and engage with biology in the world around them.

The Subject of Childhood is a collection of essays on early childhood education/childhood studies that brings critical psychological, psychoanalytic, and cultural studies perspectives to bear on understanding the lives children live. Central concerns running through these essays are the emergence of subjectivity in the child; the complexity of conceptualizing the relationship between external cultural and social forces; and the internal sense of agency that we know that each child possesses. Together, the volume is a blending of interdisciplinary theoretical writing, personal autobiographical inquiry, and concrete examples from the author's work with teachers in schools and from his clinical practice as a child psychoanalyst. Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and professionals across the English-speaking world in early childhood education, childhood education, educational foundations, and cultural studies in education, this book functions as a core text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in child development, child psychology, sociology of education, childhood studies, and early childhood education.

In 1992 the Spark invited Martin Stannard to write her biography, offering interviews and full access to her papers. The result is this biography of the Scottish author.

Designed to teach nurses about the development, motivational, and sociocultural differences that affect teaching and learning, this text combines theoretical and pragmatic content in a balanced, complete style. --from publisher description.

The first new biography of America's foremost woman of letters in twenty years, No Gifts from Chance presents an Edith Wharton for our times. Far from the emotionally withdrawn and neurasthenic victim of earlier portraits, she is revealed here as an ambitious, disciplined, and self-determined woman who fashioned life to her own desires. Drawing on government records, legal and medical documents, and recently opened collections of Wharton's letters, Shari Benstock's biography offers new information on what have been called the key mysteries of her life: the question of her paternity, her troubled relations with her mother and older brothers, her marriage to manic-depressive Teddy Wharton, and her extramarital affair with Morton Fullerton.