Biography & Memoir

Based on her sensational commencement speech at the University of Tennessee and drawing on her own life experiences, the country superstar and cultural legend explores the four great hopes she urges us to embrace — dream more, learn more, care more and be more.

The co-founder of the art magazine L'OEIL reflects on her life in the arts, including her encounters with such artists as Pablo Picasso, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copeland, Karl Lagerfield and David Hockney.

Told in never-before-published letters and photos taken from the Queen of Mystery's very own archives, this exciting travelogue, steeped in history and illustrated with photos, postcards, newspaper clippings and memorabilia, documents her eye-opening yearlong voyage around the British Empire in 1922.

An artist describes her bipolar disorder diagnosis and her struggles with mental stability while discussing other artists and creative people throughout history who were also labeled as "crazy" — including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe and Sylvia Plath.

The Fiddler On Pantico Run uncovers the history of Joe Mozingo's multicultural family as well as the story of his ancestor, a Jamestown colony slave who won his freedom in 1672 to then become a tobacco farmer and the head of one of America's first mixed-race families.

A five-time Grammy nominee presents an illustrated tribute to the lives and legacies of the Gershwins that is presented through the stories of 12 of their most enduring songs, including "Strike Up the Band" and "Love Is Here to Stay," in a volume that is complemented by a CD of original recordings.

Margaret Talbot's new book traces the rise of popular entertainment over the past 100 years as reflected by the career of her father, actor Lyle Talbot, who worked as a traveling performer before advancing to regular roles in film and television.

A full-length biography of a leading painter of the Italian High Renaissance takes into account recent historical art research and scholarship and examines all contemporary accounts of Titian's life and work, attempting to explain the evolution of his complex methods.

The entertainment icon presents an array of stories that capture humorous and inspirational moments from his sixty-year career. He shares the wisdom he has gained from his own experiences and from the people he met along the way.

An influential creative director of American Vogue magazine traces her decades in the fashion industry, recounting her early years as a model under the tutelage of Norman Parkinson, unexpected rise to fame and associations with numerous fashion luminaries, including a young Wintour.

Opening a unique window to Victorian England, this thought-provoking study of the author as a father and as a man highlights the strange and surprising stories of each of Dickens' 10 children — from Kate, who became a successful artist, to Frank, who died after serving in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

A portrait of a forefront leader in the birth control movement by the author of Sisters seeks to restore her position in feminist history in an account that includes coverage of such topics as the nursing experiences that inspired her beliefs, her pioneering of a first family-planning clinic and her relationships with such figures as John Reed, Mabel Dodge and H. G. Wells.

In Drop Dead Healthy, author A.J. Jacobs attempts to become the healthiest man in the world. Structuring his life around a deluge of diets and fitness regimens that often contradict each other, he experiences the logical conclusion of our culture's health obsessions.

Athanasius Kircher, the legendary 17th-century priest-scientist, was either a genius or a raving lunatic. This fascinating portrait traces his rise, success and eventual fall.