Henry D. Thoreau (1817–62) was an American author, naturalist, poet, and philosopher. He wrote many essays and books, including Civil Disobedience, Walking, and The Maine Woods, among others. John Updike (1932–2009) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, and poet. One of the most influential and compelling books in American literature, Walden is a vivid account of the years that Henry D. Thoreau spent alone in a secluded...

“Walden. Yesterday I came here to live.” That entry from the journal of Henry David Thoreau, and the intellectual journey it began, would by themselves be enough to place Thoreau in the American pantheon. His attempt to “live deliberately” in a small woods at the edge of his hometown of Concord has been a touchstone for individualists and seekers since the publication of Walden in 1854. But there was much more to Thoreau than his brief experiment...

Sullivan goes beyond the myth to present the Henry David Thoreau that many don't know: the activist, organizer, and gregarious adventurer. The author shows not a lonely eccentric but a man whose seminal work was intended to revive a stagnant America.--

"Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor of the Industrial Revolution, but as a child, he struggled with illnesses. When sick, Tesla found comfort in stories by Mark Twain. As an adult, Tesla became friends with the man behind this pen name, Samuel Clemens, who was captivated by Tesla's unique inventions. This book unveils details behind this interesting friendship, with approachable text and enlightening historical images. Fascinating fact boxes and...

Follows the life of Washington Irving from meeting his namesake, George Washington, and through his years as a businessman, lawyer, traveler, and diplomat as well as his inspiration for "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

Explore the life and legacy of Mark Twain, the man whose work gave American literature its voice. He was a great American original, a gifted and irreverent storyteller whose portrayal of a wild young nation captured the imagination of the world. Whether it be on the trails of the Wild West, the streets of New York, and in the shore towns of his beloved Mississippi River, Mark Twain lived out the greatest adventures of nineteenth-century America. Revisit...

"This book begins the first multi-volume biography of Samuel Clemens to appear in over a century. In the succeeding years, Clemens biographers have either tailored their narratives to fit the parameters of a single volume or focused on a particular period or aspect of Clemens's life, because the whole of that epic life cannot be compressed into a single volume. In The Life of Mark Twain, Gary Scharnhorst has chosen to write a complete biography plotted...