Two-and-a-half centuries after his death, the complex life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach continues to fascinate.Bach's colorful life was anchored in his belief that "music has been ordered by God's Spirit"?so much so that he began each composition by scrawling Jesu, juva (Jesus, help me) at the top of a blank page and concluded each with S.D.G. (short for Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory). Through the eyes of noted music and culture writer Rick Marsc...

Historian Rick Marschall has collected almost five hundred quotations, descriptions, impressions, and memories of the "Most Interesting American" derived from vintage newspapers, magazines, scrapbooks, diaries, letters and so much more. In chapters devoted to his personality as a family man, a conservationist, an intellectual, patriot, activist, and as an American TR comes alive as never before seen.In more than a century since his death, the personal attributes that endeared Theod...

One of America’s most beloved presidents comes to life in this comprehensive, unique biography illustrated by more than 250 period cartoons. Theodore Roosevelt, adored for everything from his much-caricatured teeth and glasses to his almost childlike exuberance and boundless energy, as well as his astounding achievements, captivated Americans of his day—and the cartoonists who immortalized him in their drawings. In Bully! The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt, author and cartoo...

Two-and-a-half centuries after his death, the complex life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach continues to fascinate.Bach's colorful life was anchored in his belief that "music has been ordered by God's Spirit"?so much so that he began each composition by scrawling Jesu, juva (Jesus, help me) at the top of a blank page and concluded each with S.D.G. (short for Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory). Through the eyes of noted music and culture writer Rick Marsc...

Theodore Roosevelt largely is known today by stereotypes and his many accomplishments—but the full and fascinating essence of the man is fading. In this book, TR charges back!Historian Rick Marschall has collected almost five hundred quotations, descriptions, impressions, and memories of the "Most Interesting American" derived from vintage newspapers, magazines, scrapbooks, diaries, letters, and so much more. In chapters devoted to his personality as a family man, ...

“Styron’s most impressive performance. . . . Belongs on that small shelf reserved for American masterpieces.” —Washington Post Book WorldWinner of the 1980 National Book Award, Sophie’s Choice is William Styron’s classic novel of love, survival, and regret, set in Brooklyn in the wake of the Second World War. The novel centers on three characters: Stingo, a sexually frustrated aspiring novelist; Nathan, his charismatic but violent Jewish neighbor;...

An award-winning journey through Johann Sebastian Bach's six cello suites and the brilliant musician who revealed their lasting genius.One fateful evening, journalist and pop-music critic Eric Siblin attended a recital of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites—an experience that set him on an epic quest to uncover the mysterious history of the entrancing compositions and their miraculous reemergence nearly two hundred years later. In pursuit of his musicolog...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “Colonel Roosevelt is compelling reading, and [Edmund] Morris is a brilliant biographer who practices his art at the highest level. . . . A moving, beautifully rendered account.”—Fred Kaplan, The Washington PostThis biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, m...

A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages.From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea. That American...

This "monumental" portrait of the man, his music, and the world in which he lived is "a truly remarkable biography" ( The Christian Science Monitor).Jan Swafford's biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, more than a decade in the making, peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathi...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY • “A shining portrait of a presciently modern political genius maneuvering in a gilded age of wealth, optimism, excess and American global ascension.”—San Francisco Chronicle“[Theodore Rex] is one of the great histories of the American presidency, worthy of being on a shelf alongside Henry Adams’s volumes on Jefferson and Madison.”—Ti...

"A brilliant full-length portrait of Franklin Roosevelt the politician"—the first in an award-winning two-volume biography ( The Christian Science Monitor).Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the longest serving president in United States history, reshaping the country during the crises of the Great Depression and World War II. But before his ascension to the presidency, FDR laid the groundwork for his unprecedented run with decades of canny political maneuvering...