A memoir from the Native American poet describes her youth with an abusive stepfather, becoming a single teen mom, and how she struggled to finally find inner peace and her creative voice.

Explores the lives of Laura and Aldous Huxley, including their work and their social life in Los Angeles.

"This account of Philip Roth traces the psychological and artistic origins of his creative life. It examines the major events of his career, while identifying a series of personal themes in his writing, from his relationship with Judaism to family, marriage, Eastern Europe and America. It addresses his private challenges from romance and health, to surviving as a writer burdened with success. The book also reflects how living outside the United States,...

"One of the most iconoclastic twentieth-century American novelists, James Purdy penned original and sometimes shocking works about those on the margins of American society, exploring small towns, urban life, failure, alienation, sexuality, and familial relations. In his own life, Purdy was a compelling if eccentric figure, declared an "authentic American genius" by Gore Vidal. James Purdy: Life of a Contrarian Writer is the first full-length biography...

The author shares his story of surviving a 1979 plane crash in the woods on Cape Cod, and reconnects with other survivors in an attempt to come to terms with the emotional ramifications of the incident.

"The first biography of one of the most important poets in the second half of the twentieth century, whose life story is unparalleled in its narrative interest. The story of James Merrill (1926-1995) is that of a young man escaping, but inevitably reproducing, the energies and obsessions of glamorous, powerful parents (his father founded Merrill Lynch); of a gay man inventing his identity against a shifting social and sexual backdrop; and of a brilliantly...

"Biography of the British expatriate Charles Joseph Finger (1867-1941), known primarily as an award-winning author of children's literature. Finger's allusive and suggestive short fiction won some critical acclaim during his lifetime, but the Newbery Medal that made him famous ended his development as an author of serious queer literature. His insistence on forging a life on the secret byways of queer culture offers a rare example of gay community...

Louise Fitzhugh's books are full of resistance: to liars, to conformity, to authority, and even (radically, for a children's author) to make-believe. As a commercial children's author and lesbian, Fitzhugh often had to disguise the nature of her most intimate relationships. She lived her life as a dissenter--a friend to underdogs, outsiders, and artists--and her masterpiece remains long after her death to influence and provoke new generations of readers....