Literary Biography

青年同士の淡い恋と心の移り変わりを描いた堀辰雄の短編小説。堀自身も学生時代、寄宿舎で生活していた経験がある。

I traveled across the globe from Vietnam to the United States and landed in Detroit, Michigan to reunite with my family. Coming from Saigon’s tropical weather, one of my wishes was to get to experience the magical beauty of a snow day for the first time, spent alongside my family. In the book, Goodbye Tropical Weather and Hello Winter, I share some of the great memories associated with this journey.

Phillis Wheatley was just another child kidnapped into slavery from Senegal, until she began to show enormous intellectual promise, eventually shocking a room of Boston scholars by translating Ovid at the age of 14. Wheatley would go on to become a major voice in the American literary scene and would pave the way for African American writers to come.

Taken from her family in Africa at the age of seven, Phillis Wheatley arrived in Boston as a slave in 1761. After she was purchased by the Wheatley family, Phillis quickly learned to speak and read English. The bright young girl soon began writing poetry. By 1771, her poems had been published in newspapers all over the colonies, and critics were praising the "extraordinary negro poetess." In this engaging biography, author Maryann Weidt tells the story of how a young slave girl in revolutionary Boston became an internationally famous poet and the first black American to publish a book.

Every great author started out as a kid. Before the best sellers, fan clubs, and beloved stories we know today, the world's most celebrated writers had regular-kid problems just like you. Sam Clemens (aka Mark Twain) loved to skip school and make mischief, with his best friend Tom, of course! A young J. R. R. Tolkien was bitten by a huge tarantula - or as he called it, "a spider as big as a dragon." Toddler Zora Neale Hurston took her first steps when a wild hog entered her house and started chasing her!

Ill with Bright’s disease and conscious of her approaching death, Lydia Cassatt contemplates her world with courage, openness, and passion. As she addresses and comes to accept her own position as her sister’s model, she asks stirring questions about love and art’s capacity to remember.

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.

Comic Lorna Landvik gives Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon a feminine perspective with her story about Patty Jane and Harriet Dobbin, two wacky Minnesota sisters. Before she can say "annulment," Patty Jane's husband has gone and a baby is on the way, leaving Patty to rely on sister Harriet and the House of Curl, a beauty shop which evolves into a support group and community workshop over three tumultuous decades.

Nevermore brings one of America’s most enigmatic writers to the attention of a new generation of children. This intriguing biography examines the life and times of the author and poet who would have a huge influence on future generations of writers, poets, artists, and even songwriters. Poe pioneered the psychological horror story, the detective story, and the emerging genre of science fiction. Through his dark tales and unforgettable verse, as well as his literary criticism, he made major contributions to the development of the modern short story and modern poetry in America.

Mark Twain relates how he broke the news when he was still unknown. He was in Honolulu when the survivors from the harrowing open sea voyage of the clipper-ship Hornet arrive. He stayed up late to get the accounts of the sailors’ trials, writes through the night and relays a detailed account when the other reporters only had an outline report.

Mark Twain was born fully grown, with a cheap cigar clamped between his teeth. So begins Sid Fleischman's ramble-scramble biography of the great American author and wit, who started life in a Missouri village as a barefoot boy named Samuel Clemens.

Sarah Brenner was always one of a kind, even with four sisters who dressed just like her. Growing up in an immigrant family on New York City’s impoverished Lower East Side, Sarah’s life was full of things that weren’t fair. It wasn’t fair that her parents had to leave Europe because of their religion. It wasn’t fair they worked hard all day and the family barely had enough to eat. It wasn’t fair how girls were treated in her school. When she grew up, Sarah gave herself a modern name, Sydney, just right for a woman who was going to forge her own path and continue to fight for a fairer world.

"Little People, Big Dreams" erzählt von den Lebensgeschichten beeindruckender Persönlichkeiten: Ob rebellische Schriftstellerin, genialer Musiker, mutiger Bürgerrechtler oder visionäre Architektin, sie alle haben Großes vollbracht. Dabei begann alles, als sie noch klein waren – mit Mut und großen Träumen.

"Over the last few years I've started writing a number of stories that, for various reasons, I never finished writing..." So begins Special Problems, the comic tale of Christie Hodges, a writer who can't seem to finish a story. The problem isn't that Hodges has nothing to write about - there's her recent divorce, her paralyzed foot, trouble with her daughter and job - it's that once she starts writing, she can't stop. One problem leads to another, and another.

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.

A Father and Son's Journey is about love and understanding, for each other and the people around them. Malhar Ramcharran and Dr. Ram Ramcharran decided to write these short life lessons as a way to help share similar experiences they had while growing up.

En una hacienda a la falda de los volcanes, Juana Inés vive con su entrañable abuelo, su madre y su querida hermana Josefa, rodeada de libros y siempre acompañada por su perro xoloitzcuintle. Pronto Juana Inés se enamora del maravilloso mundo que se esconde detrás de las letras y, al pie de la pintura de la virreina, escribe los más hermosos poemas. Descubre cómo fue la niñez de sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, ¡la poeta más destacada que dejó Nueva España!

Melvil Dewey loved order (Organize mother’s jelly jars), efficiency (Why spell his name Melville when Melvil has fewer letters and sounds the same?), and keeping records (Height! Weight! Earnings!). Melvil also loved books and numbers and decimals. When he realized every library organized their books differently (Size! Title! Color!), he wondered if he could invent a system all libraries could use to ORGANIZE them EFFICIENTLY.

As soon as artist Robert McCloskey saw the ducks in Boston Public Garden, he knew he had to write about them. But how? Studying stuffed birds didn’t help. Would inviting some into his apartment work? What? Was he quack-ers? For months ducklings slept on his sofa and swam in his bathtub, making incredible messes. Quack! Quack! His roommate was not amused and his neighbors complained, but Robert did not give up. As the ducklings grew, he got down on his hands and knees and followed them with pad and pencil.

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.