The chronicle of Tennessee Williams and James Laughlin’s unlikely yet enduring literary and personal relationship.In December 1942, two guests at a Lincoln Kirstein mixer bonded over their shared love of Hart Crane’s poetry. One of them was James Laughlin, the founder of a small publishing company called New Directions, which he had begun only seven years earlier as a sophomore at Harvard. The other was a young playwright named Thomas Lanier Williams, or "Tennessee...

Now back in print, this heartbreaking novel by Romain Gary has inspired two movies, including the Netflix feature The Life AheadMomo has been one of the ever-changing ragbag of whores’ children at Madame Rosa’s boarding house in Paris ever since he can remember. But when the check that pays for his keep no longer arrives and as Madame Rosa becomes too ill to climb the stairs to their apartment, he determines to support her any way he can. This sensitive, s...

Inspired by the University of Illinois's celebration of the Brown v. Board of Education decision's fiftieth anniversary, this collection addresses the significance of Brown in the contributors' lives or work in education and civil rights. Several authors describe their personal roles in the Brown case or similar cases, while others examine and illustrate events, performances, and exhibitions that were part of the anniversary commemoration. The book not only explo...

The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the many aspects of the subject of basic hypergeometric series. The book essentially assumes no prior knowledge but eventually provides a comprehensive introduction to many important topics. After developing a treatment of historically important topics such as the q-binomial theorem, Heine's transformation, the Jacobi triple product identity, Ramanujan's 1-psi-1 summation formula, Bailey's 6-psi-6 summation formula and the Rogers-Fine ident...

"This is quintessential Merton."—The Catholic Review."The moment of takeoff was ecstatic...joy. We left the ground—I with Christian mantras and a great sense of destiny, of being at last on my true way after years of waiting and wondering..." With these words, dated October 15. 1968, the late Father Thomas Merton recorded the beginning of his fateful journey to the Orient. His travels led him from Bangkok, through India to Ceylon, and back again t...

Brand-new fiction, essays, and poems from seventeen island countries around the world."The 17 selections of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in this vibrant collection unite the voices of islanders from around the globe, complete with an excellent introduction by Marlon James . . . Readers encounter the language, customs, and flora and fauna of many island nations in this delightful and enlightening volume, an invitation to share and experience islands arou...

Awake the voice! Awake the string!Dark and dull night fly hence away,And give the honor of this dayThat sees December turned to May.—William HerrickChristmas Poems is a pleasing and diverse selection of classic holiday poems that goes all the way back to an eclogue of Virgil, moves along to a wide range of authors such as Chaucer, Herbert, Longfellow, Dickinson, Paul Dunbar, Rilke, Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, E...