Literary Biography

Gráinne Hurley - Gratefully and Affectionately - Mary Lavin and the New Yorker - HB - BRAND NEW

The first ever book about Mary Lavin's 18-year working relationship with The New Yorker and a fascinating insight into the lives of two brilliant 20th-century literary women.  Between 1958 and 1976, the Irish-American writer Mary Lavin published...

Elizabeth Coxhead - Lady Gregory : A Literary Portrait - HB - 1961

A first edition, published by Macmillan UK, 1961, lacking the original dustjacket. Asolid coipy in red/maroon cloth withtitles in gilt on black panel to spine. Illustrated.  Augusta Gregory was a cornerstone of the Irish Literary Revival. Her books...

Lorenza Foschini / Proust's Overcoat: The True Story of One Man's Passion for All Things Proust

Jacques GuErin was a prominent businessman at the head of his family's successful perfume company, but his real passion was for rare books and literary manuscripts. From the time he was a young man, he frequented the antiquarian bookshops of Paris in...

Jean-Paul Sartre - Words : Reminiscences - Vintage PB

Reprint Penguin edition, 1967, originally published in 1964 ( in France as Les Mots) Translated by Irene Clephane.  After his father's early death Jean-Paul Sartre was brought up at his grandfather's home in a world even then eighty years out of...

Sven Birkerts / The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again

The Art Of series is a new line of books reinvigorating the practice of craft and criticism. Each book will be a brief, witty, and useful exploration of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by a writer impassioned by a singular craft issue. The Art Of volumes...

Benjamin Moser / Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector

A new and passionate biography of one of Brazil's most important writers.'That rare person who looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf', Clarice Lispector is one of the most popular but least understood of Latin American writers. Now,...

David Gilmour / The Long Recessional : The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (Hardback)

The Long Recessional The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling     All of our books are second hand, and while you may not get the exact copy shown in the picture, all of our books are in very good condition. Removing stickers from a book may damage...

Anne Chisholm / Rumer Godden: A Storyteller's Life (Hardback)

Through conversations with Rumer Godden herself and from her exclusive access to private letters, Anne Chisholm has written the definitive biography (for adults and young adults) of this cherished author who died in 1998. From her idyllic childhood in...

Ariel Dorfman / Heading South, Looking North (Hardback)

  In this remarkable memoir, Dorfman describes an extraordinary life, torn between the United States, South America, and his Jewish heritage, between English and Spanish, between revolution and repression. Interwoven with the story of how Dorfman...

Walter Jackson Bate - Coleridge : A Critical Biography - PB

Partly a literary biography of Romantic era poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's life, and partly an examination of the poetry for which he remains best known.  Originally published 1968, here in a 1987 reprint  from Harvard UP. Sun  fade to...

Frederik Pohl - The Way the Future Was - A Memoir

Published by Del Rey USA, 1979, (first published 1978)  Frederik Pohl was one of the most influential and connected authors and organisers in teh world of US 20TH century Science Fiction, as well as being the author of award winning novels and short...

Judith Cook, J.B. Priestley / Priestley (Hardback)

This is a comprehensive biography of J.B. Priestley which has been written with the co-operation of the Priestley children and, in the 18 months before her death, of his widow, Jacquetta Hawkes.     All of our books are second hand, and while...

Andrew Motion / Keats - A Biography (Hardback)

      All of our books are second hand, and while you may not get the exact copy shown in the picture, all of our books are in very good condition. Removing stickers from a book may damage it, so we refrain from doing so. If you see a...

Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb / O'Neill : Life with Monte Cristo (Hardback)

If at first you don't succeed... well, actually, Arthur and Barbara Gelb's 1962 book about Eugene O'Neill was a resounding success by any measure; for years, theirs was the definitive account of the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and his work. Far from...

Anthony Trollope / An Autobiography

Anthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also...

D.T. Max / Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace

The first biography of the most influential writer of his generation, David Foster WallaceDavid Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his era, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant...

Stanley Wells / Shakespeare: Off the Record

Shakespeare is the archetypal literary magus, wise and prolific, his imagined realm extending vastly to encompass history, love, emotions, all the vices and virtues, town life in pubs and courts, the countryside, sea voyages, battles, supernatural...

Joyce Johnson / Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

January 1957: girl meets boy on a blind date arranged by Allen Ginsberg. The girl was Joyce Johnson, the boy Jack Kerouac, and it was nine months before 'On The Road' became a permanent part of the American vocabulary. But like Robin Hood's and Peter...

Juan Arias / Paulo Coelho: Confessions of a Pilgrim

Revealing interviews with the author of The Alchemist and Veronika decides to Die. This fascinating book is full of Paulo’s unique insights and life story and will have huge appeal for his fans it is the closest thing there is to an...

Diana Athill / Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend (Hardback)

Written in an even more vivid and direct style than her celebrated memoirs, Diana Athill's letters to the American poet Edward Field reveal a sharply intelligent woman with a brilliant sense of humour, a keen eye for the absurd, a fierce loyalty and...

Stephen Gwynn - Oliver Goldsmith ( A Biography) - HB - 1937 ( Originally 1935)

Hardcover, a reprint 2 years after initial publication, as part of the Keystone Series . A biography of the poet Oliver Goldsmith. This copy bears a (modern) signature on the front endpaper by a more recent owner with the note 'descendant of Oliver...

Geoffrey Elborn - Francis Stuart : A Life - PB Biography -1990

Published by Raven Arts PRESS, 1990, paperback.  A biography of the frequently controversial Irish author, who broadcasted from Nazi Germany during WW2.