501 Great Writers

Profiles 501 poets, novelists, playwrights, philosophers, and essayists from around the world and throughout history, with critical appraisals of each author's work and their place in world literature and culture.

- The most comprehensive single-volume guide to writers and their works on the market - Compiled by an international team of literary critics, authors, teachers and journalists - Beautifully illustrated with portraits of writers and photo graphs of their work - The perfect companion to the acclaimed 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - Also available in the same series: 501 Great Artists (March 2009)

Explore the fascinating lives and loves of the greatest novelists, poets, and playwrights. From William Shakespeare and Jane Austen to Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison, Writers explores more than 100 biographies of the world's greatest writers. Each featured novelist, playwright, or poet is introduced by a stunning portrait, followed by photography and illustrations of locations and artifacts important in their lives - along with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and their correspondence. Trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired each individual and affected their writing, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots, and evocative settings that they created. You will also uncover details each writer's most famous pieces and understand the times and cultures they lived in - see how the world influenced them and how their works influenced the world. Writers introduces key ideas, themes, and literary techniques of each figure, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world's greatest novels, short stories, poems, and plays. A diverse variety of authors are covered, from the Middle Ages to present day, providing a compelling glimpse into the lives of the people behind the page.

The move to a new publisher has given The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual the opportunity to recommit to what it does best: present to a wide readership cant-free scholarly articles and essays and searching book reviews, all featuring a wide variety of approaches, written by both seasoned scholars and relative newcomers. Volume 24 features commentary on a range of Johnsonian topics: his reaction to Milton, his relation to the Allen family, his notes in his edition of Shakespeare, his use of Oliver Goldsmith in his Dictionary, and his always fascinating Nachleben. The volume also includes articles on topics of strong interest to Johnson: penal reform, Charlotte Lennox's professional literary career, and the "conjectural history" of Homer in the eighteenth century. For more than two decades, The Age of Johnson has presented a vast corpus of Johnsonian studies "in the broadest sense," as founding editor Paul J. Korshin put it in the preface to Volume 1, and it has retained the interest of a wide readership. In thousands of pages of articles, review essays, and reviews, The Age of Johnson has made a permanent contribution to our understanding of the eighteenth century, and particularly of Samuel Johnson, his circle, and his interests, and has also served as an outlet for writers who are not academics but have something important to say about the eighteenth century. ISSN 0884-5816.

The book examines Charlie Chaplin's evolving perspective on dark comedy in his three war films, Shoulder Arms (1918), The Great Dictator (1940), and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). In the first he uses the genre in a groundbreaking manner but yet for a pro-war cause. In Dictator dark comedy is applied in an antiwar way. In Monsieur Verdoux Chaplin embraces the genre as an individual in defense against a society out to destroy him. All three are pivotal films in the development of the genre in film, with the latter two movies being very controversial for their time.

Born in Winchester, Indiana, Robert Wise spent much of his youth sitting in darkened movie theaters enthralled by the swashbuckling heroics of screen legend Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Through these viewings, Wise developed a passion for film—a passion he followed for the rest of his life, making movies in Hollywood. Nationally known film historian Wes D. Gehring explores Wise’s life from his days in the Hoosier State to the beginning of his movie career at RKO studios working as the editor of Orson Welles’s classic movie Citizen Kane. Wise is best known for producing and directing two of the most memorable movie musicals in cinema history, West Side Story (co-director Jerome Robbins) and The Sound of Music, for which he won four Academy Awards—two Best Picture and Best Directors Oscars. But, as Gehring notes, other than Howard Hawks, Wise was arguably Hollywood’s most versatile director of various celebrated genre films.

If you are now reading '501 “More” Writers Useful Phrases', then you may already have in your collection the original … '501 Writers Useful Phrases'. These little gems, contained in both editions, are not for the faint hearted. They are there to assist the enthusiastic writer and novelist who comes face to face with the odd case of 'writers block' … the 'too much coffee … brain not functioning' syndrome and the simply 'can't be bothered to write another word today' disease.As we advised in the original '501 Writers Useful Phrases', you may be one of those fortunate and gifted writers who can simply knock the words out, get them down on paper, and after a morning recording a personal score of several thousand words, relax over a satisfying low calorie lunch … and a large glass of even lower calorie Chardonnay. No fight with the wife, husband or kids involved … just simple, straightforward … bliss!But hold on one goddamn minute! What if you are one of those poor, continuously striving writers who simply bleed to death over every sentence, knowing well what you want to write, but reluctantly unable to find that precise little phrase … to exactly describe the moment. Good news … this is the book for you!As we have said before, this second edition of the 'Writers Useful Phrases' is not the complete answer to a 'writer's prayer', but it is a great second line reference book of phrases you can use every day in your writing journey. So, what does 501 “More” Writers Useful Phrases contain?It's simple really. If you have the first edition, this book is divided in to the same ten sections as the original version with each one containing 50 short phrases, quotes, expressions or complete sentences to fit a particular subject heading. The last section contains 51 entries, again making a total of 501 for this edition.Hopefully, you the reader … and more importantly, you the writer, will gain something more from this second writers new phrasebook in the series. It will make a great reference book and a significant addition to '501 Writers Useful Phrases' … not only at the initial manuscript stage in the production of your next epic novel, but at the tough edit stage where just one small adjustment can make all the difference.The Author would like to thank you all for making '501 Writers Useful Phrases' so successful and simply wish you good luck in your search for perfection. Hopefully this new collection of 'little gems' will have played a part in the production of your next block buster.Remember to … keep the faith.!! … and work hard to create your own 'Good Luck.!