Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for BiographyLouisa May Alcott is known universally. Yet during Louisa's youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson—an eminent teacher and a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, for the world and from his family. Louisa challenged him with her mercurial moods and yearnings for money and fame. The other prize she deeply coveted—her father's understanding—seemed hardest to win. This story of Bronson and Louisa's ten...

Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Matteson illuminates three harrowing months of the Civil War and their enduring legacy for America.December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln’s government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to...

“Psychologically rich. . . . Matteson’s book restores the heroism of [Fuller’s] life and work.”—The New YorkerA brilliant writer and a fiery social critic, Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) was perhaps the most famous American woman of her generation. Outspoken and quick-witted, idealistic and adventurous, she became the leading female figure in the transcendentalist movement, wrote a celebrated column of literary and social commentary for Horace Greeley’s newsp...

After 25 years as a piano teacher of 100 students, mostly children, I find that i continue to be impressed by their musical talent and amused by their unexpected comments. If you like kids as much as i do, you will appreciate some of their unintentional and frequently uninhibited humor. Quoting my late grandmother Velma Peterson, as she quoted a favorite early T.V. host "Kids Say the Darnest Things".

Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Matteson illuminates three harrowing months of the Civil War and their enduring legacy for America.December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln's government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to...

Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai traces the roots of modern global East Asia by focusing on the fascinating history of its seaways. The East Asian maritime realm, from the Straits of Malacca to the Sea of Japan, has been a core region of international trade for millennia, but during the long seventeenth century (1550 to 1700), the velocity and scale of commerce increased dramatically. Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese smugglers and pirates forged autonomous networks and maritime po...

Where and what is the place of the wild? Is the goal of preserving biodiversity across the landscape of North America compatible with contemporary Western culture?Place of the Wild brings together original essays from an exceptional array of contemporary writers and activists to present in a single volume the most current thinking on the relationship between humans and wilderness. A common thread running through the volume is the conviction that everyone concerned with the...

Make the most of your attorney by actively managing the relationship. Clients Are from Earth Attorneys Are from Law School shows you the way to your best possible outcome. Clients Are from Earth—Attorneys Are from Law School presents valuable information in terms the layperson can understand. You will learn: 1. The two keys to getting what you want in any legal situation. 2. How to remain in control of your attorney. 3. The secrets of how attorneys think to get better results in any legal ...

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer of Louisa May Alcott illuminates the world of Little Women and its author.Since its publication in 1868–69, Little Women, perhaps America's most beloved children's classic, has been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. It has been translated into more than fifty languages and inspired six films, four television shows, a Broadway musical, an opera, and a web series. This lavish, four-color editi...

Based on a terrifying real-life incident, this tale of seduction, insanity, and murder is one of America's earliest novels. It unfolds in rural Pennsylvania of the 1760s, where a religious fanatic massacres several members of his family. Part thriller and part psychological drama, it explores the corruption of law and order within a small community.The American Gothic style of author Charles Brockden Brown combines intellectual and supernatural elements — a literary mode that influe...

A spirited freethinker amid an oppressive Puritan community, Hope Leslie champions independence for women and justice for Native Americans. Her best friend Magawisca, the daughter of a Pequot chief, defies tribal authority to rescue a white man from death and restore a kidnapped girl to her family. This frontier novel paints an intriguing portrait of life in seventeenth-century New England as it explores the tumultuous relations between Puritans and Pequots.Author Catharine Sedgwick...