William Dean Howells's warm, intimate portrait of Mark Twain begins with their first meeting in Boston and grows into a lifelong friendship marked by laughter, admiration, and repeated visits in Hartford and New York. Twain emerges as a dazzling presence: theatrically dressed, mischievous, endlessly talkative, and yet rooted in a boyish originality that made his humor feel inseparable from deeper wisdom. Howells moves through literary gatherings with Fields, Aldrich, Bret Harte, and Ralph ...

The Marches, married twenty-five years, take the European tour they could not afford as newlyweds — the ship, the Rhine, Carlsbad, a young couple in trouble whom they cannot help minding about. Howells edited The Atlantic and wrote for Harper's, and was the most powerful literary broker in America; here he does middle age exactly, and the kindness of the book is not softness.

A middle-aged American in Florence, comfortable and finished with life, is courted by a girl of twenty and by her chaperone, who is his own age — and behaves badly, then better, then badly again. Howells edited The Atlantic and was the most powerful literary broker in America; this 1886 novel is his lightest and his best, and the humiliation of a man discovering he is not young is done with no cruelty at all.

An Ohio family — a judge, his wife, and a daughter recovering from an unsuitable attachment — is taken to Europe to get over it, and the Atlantic and the Dutch canals do not much help. Howells edited The Atlantic and was the most powerful literary broker in America; this 1902 novel is his quiet study of ordinary decent people being wrong about their own children, and the father is beautifully done.

Bartley Hubbard, a sharp-eyed Boston journalist, arrives to profile Silas Lapham for a series on "solid men," and the interview quickly becomes a vivid portrait of American self-making. Lapham, prosperous, plainspoken, and proud, recounts his Vermont boyhood, his mother's exhausting labor, and the hard-won path that took him from sawmills and stage driving to a hotel, a marriage to the schoolteacher Persis, and finally a business fortune. At the center of his rise is the accidental discove...

A Vermont girl of no family is taken up by a rich woman as a companion and carried to Italy — where the arrangement, and everyone's exact idea of what she is owed, comes apart. Howells edited The Atlantic and was the most powerful literary broker in America; this 1899 novel is his quietest anatomy of patronage, and the girl's refusal to be grateful on cue is the whole book.

A self-made paint millionaire from Vermont builds a house on the water side of Beacon Street and discovers that Boston's old families will accept his money and not his daughters. Howells edited The Atlantic and was the most powerful literary man in America; he made his hero's crisis a matter of business ethics rather than romance, which nobody had thought to do.

As the city teeters on the brink of collapse, a small group of survivalists retreats into the mountains, determined to endure. Driven by fear of an impending apocalypse, they build a self-sufficient sanctuary, stocked with supplies and survival skills. When news of a potential threat from Russia shakes their community, they isolate themselves even further.What begins as a united effort to prepare soon devolves into distrust and paranoia. The members turn on each other, driven by fea...

From high atop a hill in his New Mexico home, Dean Rudoy surveys eight decades of "this hard, sweet life." Psychologist, teacher, activist, son, friend, he offers inspirational stories of indelible encounters with the extraordinary, arising from familiar and uncanny events alike.Growing up with a necessary secret in a small Midwestern town, Rudoy awakens to the private yearnings of others. Troubled young men in a New York hospital struggle for clarity; children proclaim truths that...

Too many organizations today play follow the leader: the commander articulates a "vision" and people uncritically go along with it. But this style of leadership is ultimately ineffective and even dangerous. It hampers people's ability to anticipate and react to changing circumstances. And if the leader's vision is flawed, the entire organization will suffer. In Real Leadership, Dean Williams argues that the true task of the leader is to get people to face the reality of any situation thems...

Leaders and managers face numerous challenges and arguably the biggest is 'the people challenge':motivating, inspiring, nurturing and coaching the troupes. Relationships with individuals are therefore key to the success of your business and in turn yourself. Top executive business coach Dean Williams identifies 7 critical Success Factors to achieving the healthiest and most productive business relationships. Pragmatic and to the point, this book is packed with easily digestible tried and t...

     It all started with this advertisement in the San Francisoo Examiner: Wanted: Pen pal from the California area. I am a 24-year-old female from Manchester, Illinois looking for a kind and loving gentleman to correspond with and hope that more than friendship may develop. Please reply to the editor.      It is about what happens between three people where two of them are in love at a time and one loves all the time. There was always love in th...