The Half-Known World

Download The Half-Known World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Graywolf Press
ISBN 13 : 9781555970215
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Half-Known World by : Robert Boswell

Download or read book The Half-Known World written by Robert Boswell and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rigorous examination of the workings of fiction by the novelist Robert Boswell, "one of America's finest writers" (Tom Perrotta) Robert Boswell has been writing, reading, and teaching literature for more than twenty years. In this sparkling collection of essays, he brings this vast experience and a keen critical eye to bear on craft issues facing literary writers. Examples from masters such as Leo Tolstoy, Flannery O'Connor, and Alice Munro illustrate this engaging discussion of what makes great writing. At the same time, Boswell moves readers beyond the classroom, candidly sharing the experiences that have shaped his own writing life. A chance encounter in a hotel bar leads to a fascinating glimpse into his imaginative process. And through the story of a boyhood adventure, Boswell details how important it is for writers to give themselves over to what he calls the "half-known world" of fiction, where surprise and meaning converge.

The Known World

Download The Known World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061746363
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (617 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Known World by : Edward P. Jones

Download or read book The Known World written by Edward P. Jones and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Edward P. Jones comes one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory—winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues. Edward P. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities. “A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon.”—Time

The Half-Known Life

Download The Half-Known Life PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781646636457
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (364 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Half-Known Life by : Ryan Lindner

Download or read book The Half-Known Life written by Ryan Lindner and published by . This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I'm going down now," I said to a young woman a few seconds before the darkness-my first cardiac arrest. As I returned to work as a behavioral coach, it became maddening to hear about all-consuming, everyday problems and misguided priorities while I fought to merely remain conscious. The Half-Known Life challenges conventional thinking of success, identity, and personal change. Most often, truly profound change happens following events that shake someone to their core-a car accident, death of a family member, or cardiac arrest that pulls them into a moment of clarity. Priorities change when time becomes precious. Problems look different when you have no energy left to give them. Why wait until you're burnt out or for a life-changing event to occur before getting real about your life? Who are you when all of the accolades and accomplishments are gone? What does how you manage your time say about what's important to you-about what matters most? Get out of your head and get into your life, before it slips away.

Half the Sky

Download Half the Sky PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307387097
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Half the Sky by : Nicholas D. Kristof

Download or read book Half the Sky written by Nicholas D. Kristof and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation—the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. From the bestselling authors of Tightrope, two of our most fiercely moral voices With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope. They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS. Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty. Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen.

Tumbledown

Download Tumbledown PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Graywolf Press
ISBN 13 : 1555970761
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (559 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tumbledown by : Robert Boswell

Download or read book Tumbledown written by Robert Boswell and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Boswell's first novel since Century's Son showcases once again his "dazzling technical skill, intelligence and moral seriousness" (The New York Times Book Review) *A Library Journal "Best Indie Fiction of 2013" * At age thirty-three, James Candler seems to be well on the road to success. He's in line for a big promotion at Onyx Springs, the treatment facility where he's a therapist. He has a fiancée, a sizable house, and a Porsche. But . . . he's falling in love with another woman, he's underwater on his mortgage, and he's put his hapless best friend in charge of his signature therapeutic program. Even the GPS on his car can't seem to predict where he should turn next. And his clients are struggling in their own hilarious, heartbreaking ways to keep their lives on track. How can he help them if he can't help himself? In Tumbledown, Robert Boswell presents a large, unforgettable cast of characters who are all failing and succeeding in various degrees to make sense of our often-irrational world. In a moving narrative twist, he boldly reckons with the extent to which tragedy can be undone, the impossible accommodated.

Living to be a Hundred

Download Living to be a Hundred PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harper Perennial
ISBN 13 : 9780060976316
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (763 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Living to be a Hundred by : Robert Boswell

Download or read book Living to be a Hundred written by Robert Boswell and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 1995 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of short stories, the theme of which are families. In "Grief," parents watch as a young man who killed their daughter in a car accident starts dating their second daughter. In "The Good Man," an alcoholic husband who stops drinking after his family leaves him finds abstinence is even harder to bear.

Everything Under

Download Everything Under PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Graywolf Press
ISBN 13 : 1555978754
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (559 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Everything Under by : Daisy Johnson

Download or read book Everything Under written by Daisy Johnson and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 MAN BOOKER PRIZE An eerie, watery reimagining of the Oedipus myth set on the canals of Oxford, from the author of Fen The dictionary doesn’t contain every word. Gretel, a lexicographer by trade, knows this better than most. She grew up on a houseboat with her mother, wandering the canals of Oxford and speaking a private language of their own invention. Her mother disappeared when Gretel was a teen, abandoning her to foster care, and Gretel has tried to move on, spending her days updating dictionary entries. One phone call from her mother is all it takes for the past to come rushing back. To find her, Gretel will have to recover buried memories of her final, fateful winter on the canals. A runaway boy had found community and shelter with them, and all three were haunted by their past and stalked by an ominous creature lurking in the canal: the bonak. Everything and nothing at once, the bonak was Gretel’s name for the thing she feared most. And now that she’s searching for her mother, she’ll have to face it. In this electrifying reinterpretation of a classical myth, Daisy Johnson explores questions of fate and free will, gender fluidity, and fractured family relationships. Everything Under—a debut novel whose surreal, watery landscape will resonate with fans of Fen—is a daring, moving story that will leave you unsettled and unstrung.

Endless Perfect Circles

Download Endless Perfect Circles PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ian Walker
ISBN 13 : 1838535543
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (385 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Endless Perfect Circles by : Ian Walker

Download or read book Endless Perfect Circles written by Ian Walker and published by Ian Walker. This book was released on 2020-07-27 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A professional psychologist spent his entire life believing he had no ability or interest in sport. Then, in his forties, he became a champion ultradistance athlete before breaking the world record for the fastest bicycle crossing of Europe. This journey - made entirely alone and without any support crew - went from the northernmost point in the Arctic down to the very southernmost point in Spain. Averaging 377 kilometres each day and with up to 18 hours in the saddle at a time, the total distance of 6367 km was covered in well under 17 days, knocking more than two days off the previous record. It was a journey of ultimate self-reliance. Endless Perfect Circles is not just a tale of sleep deprivation and eating terrible food in supermarket car parks, it is also a celebration of how tough sporting challenges offer ordinary people a path to self-improvement. Weaving his own experiences together with psychological insights, Ian Walker demonstrates the rewards we can all find from setting ourselves difficult personal goals and working out how we will rise to meet these. "When I ride, my mind is both crowded and empty. The practical part of me churns, thinking all the time about navigation, shops, food, weather and lodging, seeking information about those raw essentials of life and planning dozens of contingencies. But when I look back on any given ride, even one lasting many days, I would struggle to tell you a single thought that passed through my head, because the rest of my mind has been liberated. All of life’s needs have been simplified by the pure act of riding." About the author Ian Walker splits his time across two related worlds. By day, he is an environmental psychologist at the University of Bath, specialising in transport choices, traffic safety, energy consumption and water use. As you will see from his textbooks, he also teaches research methods and statistics at a whole range of levels from entry-level introductions up to doctoral level. Ian's professional interest in clean transport and traffic safety also extends into his personal life, where he takes part in ultradistance bicycle racing - an activity explored in his new book Endless Perfect Circles. This introduces readers to the extraordinary world of nonstop bicycle races that last for weeks at a time. It goes on to describe how Ian won a tough 4300-kilometre cycle race before breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest ever bicycle crossing of Europe.

Salt

Download Salt PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 030736979X
Total Pages : 490 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Salt by : Mark Kurlansky

Download or read book Salt written by Mark Kurlansky and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-03-18 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning and bestselling author of Cod comes the dramatic, human story of a simple substance, an element almost as vital as water, that has created fortunes, provoked revolutions, directed economies and enlivened our recipes. Salt is common, easy to obtain and inexpensive. It is the stuff of kitchens and cooking. Yet trade routes were established, alliances built and empires secured – all for something that filled the oceans, bubbled up from springs, formed crusts in lake beds, and thickly veined a large part of the Earth’s rock fairly close to the surface. From pre-history until just a century ago – when the mysteries of salt were revealed by modern chemistry and geology – no one knew that salt was virtually everywhere. Accordingly, it was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history. Even today, salt is a major industry. Canada, Kurlansky tells us, is the world’s sixth largest salt producer, with salt works in Ontario playing a major role in satisfying the Americans’ insatiable demand. As he did in his highly acclaimed Cod, Mark Kurlansky once again illuminates the big picture by focusing on one seemingly modest detail. In the process, the world is revealed as never before.

I Who Have Never Known Men

Download I Who Have Never Known Men PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Seven Stories Press
ISBN 13 : 9781888363432
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (634 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis I Who Have Never Known Men by : Jacqueline Harpman

Download or read book I Who Have Never Known Men written by Jacqueline Harpman and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 1997-04-08 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A work of fantasy, I Who Have Never Known Men is the haunting and unforgettable account of a near future on a barren earth where women are kept in underground cages guarded by uniformed groups of men. It is narrated by the youngest of the women, the only one with no memory of what the world was like before the cages, who must teach herself, without books or sexual contact, the essential human emotions of longing, loving, learning, companionship, and dying. Part thriller, part mystery, I Who Have Never Known Men shows us the power of one person without memories to reinvent herself piece by piece, emotion by emotion, in the process teaching us much about what it means to be human.

Life as We Knew it

Download Life as We Knew it PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0152061541
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Life as We Knew it by : Susan Beth Pfeffer

Download or read book Life as We Knew it written by Susan Beth Pfeffer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2008 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's still would be open. High school sophomore Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in a year's worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda's struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut Susan Beth Pfeffer has written several companion novels to Life As We Knew It, including The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon.

The Left Hand of Darkness

Download The Left Hand of Darkness PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0441478123
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (414 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Left Hand of Darkness by : Ursula K. Le Guin

Download or read book The Left Hand of Darkness written by Ursula K. Le Guin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1987-03-15 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION—WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS Ursula K. Le Guin’s groundbreaking work of science fiction—winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters... Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

These Precious Days

Download These Precious Days PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063092808
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (63 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis These Precious Days by : Ann Patchett

Download or read book These Precious Days written by Ann Patchett and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. "The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." —Publisher's Weekly “Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both. A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

The Unfinished World: And Other Stories

Download The Unfinished World: And Other Stories PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 1631490915
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (314 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Unfinished World: And Other Stories by : Amber Sparks

Download or read book The Unfinished World: And Other Stories written by Amber Sparks and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-01-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly anticipated collection of wildly imaginative short stories from “one of contemporary fiction’s true mad scientists” (Necessary Fiction). In the weird and wonderful tradition of Kelly Link and Karen Russell, Amber Sparks’s dazzling new collection bursts forth with stories that render the apocalyptic and otherworldly hauntingly familiar. In “The Cemetery for Lost Faces,” two orphans translate their grief into taxidermy, artfully arresting the passage of time. The anchoring novella, “The Unfinished World,” unfurls a surprising love story between a free and adventurous young woman and a dashing filmmaker burdened by a mysterious family. Sparks’s stories—populated with sculptors, librarians, astronauts, and warriors—form a veritable cabinet of curiosities. Mythical, bizarre, and deeply moving, The Unfinished World and Other Stories heralds the arrival of a major writer and illuminates the search for a brief encounter with the extraordinary.

Half Moon

Download Half Moon PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1608190986
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (81 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Half Moon by : Douglas Hunter

Download or read book Half Moon written by Douglas Hunter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tribute to Henry Hudson's discovery of the river that bears his name recounts how the historical explorer defied commission orders to find an eastern passage to China by redirecting his voyage along the coastline from Spanish Florida to the Grand Banks, an effort that laid a foundation for New York's establishment as a global capital. Reprint.

The Half Known Life

Download The Half Known Life PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN 13 : 9354928854
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (549 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Half Known Life by : Pico Iyer

Download or read book The Half Known Life written by Pico Iyer and published by Penguin Random House India Private Limited. This book was released on 2023-01-23 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it's in our midst-or just across the ocean-if only we can find eyes to see it. Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama's Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld - or can it be found in the here and now? For almost fifty years Iyer has been roaming the world, mixing a global soul's delight in observing cultures with a pilgrim's readiness to be transformed. In this culminating work, he brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives.

Herman Melville

Download Herman Melville PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119106001
Total Pages : 2599 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (191 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Herman Melville by : John Bryant

Download or read book Herman Melville written by John Bryant and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 2599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive exploration of Melville's formative years, providing a new biographical foundation for today's generations of Melville readers Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2, follows Herman Melville's life from early childhood to his astonishing emergence as a bestselling novelist with the publication of Typee in 1846. These volumes comprise the first half of a comprehensive biography on Melville, grounded in archival research, new scholarship, and incisive critical readings. Author John Bryant, a distinguished Melville scholar, editor, critic, and educator, traces the events and experiences that shaped the many-stranded consciousness of one of literature’s greatest writers. This in-depth and innovative biography covers Melville's family history and literary friendships, his father-longing, god-hunger, and search for the hidden nature of Being, the genesis of his liberal politics, his empathy for African Americans, Native Americans, Polynesians, South Americans, and immigrants. Original perspectives on Melville’s earliest identities—orphaned son, sibling, farmer, teacher, debater, lover, actor, sailor—provide the context for Melville’s evolution as a writer. The biography presents new information regarding Melville's reading, his early orations and acting experience, his life at sea and on the road, and the unsettling death of his older, rival brother from mercury poisoning. It provides insights on experiences such as Melville's trauma at the loss of his father, his learning to write amidst a coterie siblings, his struggles to find work during economic depression, his journey West, his life in whaling and in the navy, and his vagabondage in the South Pacific during the moment of American and European imperial incursions. A significant addition to Melville scholarship, this important biographical work: Explores the nature and development of Melville's creative consciousness, through the lens of his revisions in manuscript and print Assesses Melville's sexual growth and exploration of the spectrum of his masculinities Highlights Melville's relevance in contemporary democratic society Discusses Melville's blending of dark humor and tragedy in his unique version of the picturesque Examines the 'replaying' of Melville's life traumas throughout his entire works, from Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick, Pierre, Israel Potter, and The Confidence-Man to his shorter works, including "Bartleby," his epic Clarel, his poetry, and his last novella Billy Budd Covers such cultural and historical events as the American revolution of his grandparents, the whaling industry, New York slavery, street life and theater in Manhattan, the transatlantic slave trade, the Jacksonian economy, Indian removal, Pacific colonialism, and westward expansion Written in an engaging style for scholars and general readers alike, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2 is an indispensable new source of information and insights for those interested in Melville, 19th-century and modern literature and culture, and readers of general American history and literary culture.