Through the lens of four seminal concerts,acclaimed poet and biographer DanielMark Epstein offers an intimate, nuancedlook at Bob Dylan: a vivid, full-bodiedportrait of one of the most influential artistsof the twentieth century, from his birth tothe Never Ending Tour.Beginning with 1963's Lisner Auditoriumconcert in Washington, D.C., Epstein revisitsDylan's astonishing rise as the darling ofthe folk revival, focusing on the people andbooks that shaped him, and his struggle tofind ...

The true story of America’s first superstar evangelist that “fills a significant gap in the history of revivalism” (The New York Times Book Review).Once she answered the divine calling, Aimee Semple McPherson rose fast from unfulfilled housewife in Rhode Island to “miracle woman”—the most enigmatic, pioneering, media-savvy Christian evangelist in the country. She preached up and down the United States, traveling in a 1912 Packard with her mother and her ch...

Lincoln's Men is the first narrative portrait of the three young men who served as Lincoln's secretaries during the Civil War. John Nicolay and John Hay lived in the White House, across the hall from the president's office, and they and William Stoddard spent more time with Lincoln than anyone else outside his immediate family.Lincoln used these three intelligent, articulate young men as a sounding board; they were the first audience for much of his writing from the period...

The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period.Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told. The Lincolns eclipses...

It was more than coincidence—indeed, it was all but fate—that the lives and thoughts of Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman should converge during the terrible years of the Civil War. Kindred spirits despite their profound differences in position and circumstance, Lincoln and Whitman shared a vision of the democratic character that sprang from the deepest part of their being. They had read or listened to each other’s words at crucial turning points in their lives. Both were utterly transforme...

The dramatic story of a founding father, his illegitimate son, and the tragedy of their conflict during the American Revolution—from the acclaimed author of The Lincolns.Ben Franklin is the most lovable of America’s founding fathers. His wit, his charm, his inventiveness—even his grandfatherly appearance—are legendary. But this image obscures the scandals that dogged him throughout his life. In The Loyal Son, award-winning historian Daniel Mark Ep...

Daniel Mark Epstein’s poetry has been in the public eye for nearly sixty years, since the magazine publication of the poems in his groundbreaking first book, No Vacancies in Hell (1973). Critics praise the erotic and spiritual lyricism of his poetry, as well as its power in capturing crucial moments of American history in dramatic monologues, including prize-winning portraits of a yellow fever epidemic and Henry Adams’s tragic marriage.Of The Traveler’s Calendar (...

The first publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s private, intimate diaries, providing “a candid self-portrait of the ‘bad girl of American letters’” (Kirkus Reviews)“Endlessly intriguing and illuminating. The publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay's diaries is a major literary event, providing astonishing insight into the great poet’s art and life.”—Chloe Honum, author of The Tulip-FlameThe English autho...

A noted biographer and poet illuminates the unique woman who wrote the greatest American love poetry of the twentieth centuryWhat Lips My Lips Have Kissed is the story of a rare sort of American genius, who grew up in grinding poverty in Camden, Maine. Nothing could save the sensitive child but her talent for words, music and drama, and an inexorable desire to be loved. When she was twenty, her poetry would make her famous; at thirty she would be loved by readers the world ...

Drawing from a career of almost fifty years, Daniel Mark Epstein’s collection of new and selected poems forms a lyrical autobiography of its author as a poet and a man. Dawn to Twilight examines universal themes such as love and aging, happiness and despair, each of which Epstein approaches differently throughout the decades of his writing career. These poems encapsulate the evolution of Epstein’s work, with the passage of time itself forming a crucial theme as the author grows from studen...

The true story of America's first superstar evangelist that "fills a significant gap in the history of revivalism" (The New York Times Book Review).Once she answered the divine calling, Aimee Semple McPherson rose fast from unfulfilled housewife in Rhode Island to "miracle woman"—the most enigmatic, pioneering, media-savvy Christian evangelist in the country. She preached up and down the United States, traveling in a 1912 Packard with her mother and her ch...

The dramatic story of a founding father, his illegitimate son, and the tragedy of their conflict during the American Revolution—from the acclaimed author of The Lincolns.Ben Franklin is the most lovable of America’s founding fathers. His wit, his charm, his inventiveness—even his grandfatherly appearance—are legendary. But this image obscures the scandals that dogged him throughout his life. In The Loyal Son, award-winning historian Daniel Mark Ep...