Carlos Baker is generally known as the founding father of Hemingway biographical studies. His 1969 biography, "Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story" is the so-called "authorized" Hemingway bio and it was the first book of its kind to explore the author's life. All subsequent biographers owe a great deal to Baker and the seven years he spent producing "Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story."

Calling Baker's bio the definitive bio of Ernest Hemingway is difficult though for several reasons. First of all, being published in 1969, the book is now outdated to a great degree. Second of all, a slew of other biographies have been published since 1969 and some are very formidable. Baker's book, in my humble opinion, is probably the most tediously researched biography of Hemingway. His "Notes" section is just over 100 pages.

If I had to recommend one standard Hemingway biography, I would likely choose "Hemingway: A Biography" by Jeffrey Meyers. I have read many Hemingway biographies and in comparing them, the work of Meyers does stand out. He offers details not present in other bios and provides fine commentary on EH's literature. Meyers gets as close to definitive as I think one can come in a single book.

I bought this book after reading Heart of Darkness, Victory, and the Secret Sharer. I wanted to know more about the man who wrote such haunting fiction. The beginning of this book gives an excellent and riveting account of Conrad's parents and their political exile. After Conrad's mother dies he remains with his father in severe and isolated conditions. A detailed account of Conrad's early life helped me to understand how he wrote what he did. Quite fascinating. Also, he did visit the Congo and had experiences there that give great insight into Heart of Darkness. Including marking people he met that are models for characters in the story. Plus he was a seaman, so we learn how he could write realistically on this subject. And we learn about Conrad's psyche, his strengths and weaknesses. I loved learning about his life, but this bio also goes into some detail about all of Conrad's novels. If you haven't read them you may become lost. If you have read all his works this bio will definitely increase your appreciation and add to your understanding of this great writer.

Clear, concise and accessible book on the law of WTO though rather expensive in price. Cover all major agreements of the WTO law in a succint manner.

First of all, this biograpy does not critique or even mention when he wrote or published the stories of "William Wilson" and "The Pit and the Pendalum." This biography isn't as concerned for the work of Poe as what people of that time said and thought of him.

First half is an overkill of facts, quotes, rumors, and articles about Poe. Author seems to give no true opinion and is completely uncreative for as to how to make these facts and rumors about his character seems interesting to the reader.

It's not until well into the second half that the author seems to realize he's lead his audience to a bricked up wall. But behind the wall, we are willfully burried and sleeping in the hopes that he will not wake our slumber. Realizing this, he tries to revive us through a seance of medeocre creativity.

He does seem to put to rest the rumors circulating about the death of Mr. Poe.

But overall, this book is unimaginative, soulless, and a dozing to constantly waking history lesson of what it was to be an early American author.

I know a lot more about the life of Edgar Allan Poe after having read this book, and for that reason I'm glad I read it.

It's not, however, the most flattering of biographies. It would be an exaggeration to call Jeffrey Meyer's biography a hatchet job, but not much of one. You get the sense that the author wanted to take Poe's reputation down a peg or two. He portrays the troubled writer as not much more than a hypocritical, back-stabbing, often insincere hack who had the good fortune of stumbling upon a few brilliant turns of phrase. I don't doubt any of the factual information that Meyers provides about Poe's life. I just question the author's intent in piling high so many unflattering details. After a while, you get to wondering why Meyers even bothered writing a three hundred page book about the man.

I recommend this book to fans and scholars alike for the facts it provides about Poe's life, but with a warning regarding the biographer's unsympathetic and often harsh tone.

This book was great it shows all sides of Poe. I learned a lot about Edgar Allan Poe by reading this book. Anyone who wants to know anything about Poe should reasd thsi book. A great choice.

I was unimpressed and learned nothing. It might be worth mentioning that this is self-published by the authors. I wish I had known that--my opinion is that an established publisher would have a hard time marketing it. Just very muddled and not helpful at all.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is an absolute beginner. All text explains in plain English with hardly any program jargons.

The book is well written and clear, and presents all of the basic concepts of Computer Science. What sets it apart from most other CS intro's is the choice of Python as the language of choice. Python is much much easier to be introduced to than C/C++ or any other language I've used. Plus you can get the book for free online here: www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/dist/thinkCSpy.pdf

Disappointly poorly done. Statements made without support, poorly written, contributes little if anything new to one's understanding of the man or his work.

This is a solid, workmanlike biography of Robert Frost. It will probably appeal more to the reader who wants to know about Frost the man as opposed to the reader who is more interested in the poetry. There are some excerpts from the poetry but not a lot, and very little analysis. Probably the best thing about the book is the balanced attitude Mr. Meyers takes towards the poet. The author doesn't gloss over Frost's faults, but doesn't demonize him either. Yes, Frost had a tremendous ego. (Show me an artistic person that doesn't!) He loved to receive praise. He "collected" honorary degrees. Towards the end of his life he made it clear that he wanted degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, so that he could equal the achievement of Longfellow and James Russell Lowell. He was famous enough and knew enough of the "right" people that he was able to get what he wanted. He was extremely competitive and made nasty comments about other poets who he perceived to be a "threat", both in terms of popularity and talent- such as Carl Sandburg, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Frost made fun of Sandburg's self-created "folksy" persona- playing his "geetar" and combing his long, white hair over his eyes. But Mr. Meyers makes clear that Frost wasn't alone in his competitiveness. Though Sandburg was apparently a very nice fellow, Eliot and Pound had plenty of nasty things to say about Frost and other poets as well. Where Mr. Meyers is most sympathetic is in discussing Frost's relationship with his family. In the past, Frost has been portrayed as a selfish "monster" who ignored his wife and children and caused their unhappiness, mental problems and, in the case of Frost's son Carol, a suicide. It seems clear that mental illness ran in Frost's family, going back at least to his father and mother. Frost heard "voices" in his youth and they came back in times of severe stress, such as right after Frost's wife Elinor died in 1938. Frost had an unnatural fear of the dark and apparently suffered from some degree of depression. He managed to overcome these problems and to live a long, creative life. He did the best he could to be a good husband and father. He remained faithful to his wife despite the temptation of female students "throwing" themselves at him. (After all, even in middle-age, he was a handsome man, as well as being charismatic, artistic and famous.) He tried to be emotionally present for his children, giving advice (if also at times trying to control them) and he was always generous with money. Again, this book is strong on Frost's personal life. But it is a bit weak on analyzing the poetry and it covers Frost's teaching career in too cursory a manner, "flitting" about from place to place too quickly. Some of this is inherent in Mr. Meyers' decision to write a relatively brief biography. He tries to cover in 350 pages the personal life and career of a man who lived to be 88 years old, and who remained creative for approximately 70 of those years. Mr. Meyers had to make choices about what to include and what to leave out and other things had to be compressed. Unfortunately, it shows. This book is not the definitive biography of Frost. That remains to be written. But it is a good introduction, a book that succeeds in being fair-minded and will leave you wanting to know more about the man and the poetry.

In spite of the barrier of silence choking it, the vitality of American identity and consciousness continues to survive, thanks to clues, planted in Robert Frost: a biography, written by Jeffrey Meyers. The first major hint that America is alive and struggling for breath comes with the affirmation of the importance of Frost's identity as a native San Franciscan; the second is the remembrance of Lionel Trilling's valiant attempt in 1985 to put into sharper focus the image of Frost's work and his reputation. Nevertheless, author Meyers does not develop the latter point in which Trilling stated that Frost's reputation had been created over a misinterpretation of his work. In fact Trilling's was a major effort to raze the barrier of silence, to state and restate lines of research in the development and study of literature in America from the East Coast to the West, from Columbia University to the University of California at Berkeley (Lizarraga 1999a y b). In response to criticism both professional and personal, published in major literary reviews of the East Coast, Trilling made a valiant attempt to defend the remarks made on that historical evening, recording in permanent form by way of the Partisan Review both his speech and his will to defend it. Although Meyers describes the reaction of Frost on that evening as one of surprise, the poet was not a stranger to the effects of the barrier of silence. A letter written in 1929 by Frost to Lincoln MacVeagh (Thompson 1964:362), as well as subsequent events in the 1930's, not only establish Frost's initial attitude toward 'the silencers', but also serves as a vindication of Trilling. The letter reads as follows "The first poem I ever wrote (La Noche Triste) was on the Maya-Toltec-Aztec civilization and there is where my heart still is, while outwardly i profess an interest more or less perfunctory in new England. Never mind, I'm lucky to be allowed to write poetry on anything at all". Actually, this was but a prelude to continuing manifestations of the relation of poetry, politics, religion and repression, experienced in 1936, when Frost achieved the publication of a number of works. Key among them is the booklet titled A Further Range, which includes the poems "The Vindictives 'The Andes"and "The Bearer of Evil Tidings 'The Himalayas"and for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, and the booklet entitled from Snow to Snow, which, apparently, was the initial publication of the poem "The Road Not Taken"and which by the end of the Thirties as an integral text had been banished to oblivion by Frost himself. It is here that a concept of AngloAmerican literature, which rejects the primacy of geography in the formation of consciousness, begins to be formulated; and, time is divorced from space. This then created a dichotomy in the Americas, centering in the north of america concepts of Angloamerican and Western culture, grounded in language only, as opposed to South and/or Latin American literature in which geographical space and language serve as the cornerstones (Falcon, Huayanca, Lizarraga 1999). If we are to formulate a viable concept of an integrated American culture and education, today we must face this contradiction , a continuing source of repression and chaos. Focusing on this point, the alert reader becomes aware that the true measure of Robert Frost is to be taken by how he dealt with "the silencers" and the consequences this has had, not only on his own life, but also the lives of the rest of us, and not by the shadow of Kay Morrison and her unconventional love life of which Frost was but a part. Channeling a force with the strength to do this is not only to "keep at bey the silencers' but also to demolish the barrier of silence, itself, and"breathe free".

I ordered this book having at least three months to study. I must say the book reviews a lot but it does fall short in some areas. It would of been a whole lot better if they would of explained the answers to the Practice Test at the end. They did provide explanations to the practice problems but not to the Big Practice Exam they have at the end, though they did provide the answers. The positives about the book is that its exactly like the exam. You get familiar with the way the questions are asked and that was a real plus when i took the test. It was as if i knew where the questions were heading.Best one out there though.

This book is an identical copy of: Allied Health Professions Admission Test (Ahpat) : The Betz Guide (Serial)

I bought both books and am returning the more expensive one, the Betz Guide.

While a good biography should give us insight into what a person was like, Meyers apparently thinks himself qualified to tell us what Fitzgerald was thinking and feeling throughout his life, and those mind-reading attempts ring false.

Fitzgerald once said that all the characters in his novels were based on him. Meyers seems to believe the reverse - that Fitzgerald's personality can be illustrated almost entirely by the characters in his novels. Thus, Meyers provides the reader with a shallow caricature of Fitzgerald - where all his faults are enhanced and the real person underneath is passed over completely.

For a better glimpse of the person F. Scott Fitzgerald was, I strongly recommend F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters.

I found Jeffrey's Meyers' biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald dismaying. Not that Meyers' doesn't write well (he does), or capture the essence of Fitzgerald's dissipation, but the book seemed a deliberate hack job. It is largely a continuous stream of references to Fitzgerald's obstinacy, egotism, inferiority, outrageousness, drunkenness and worse. I don't know where anyone got the idea that Meyers' wrote with any compassion in this biography. This work only makes Fitzgerald look pathetic. Of course, in many ways he was...but I see no scholarly effort to recognize the quality and enduring value of much of his work. While they pull few punches themselves, I'd recommend Mizener's The Far Side of Paradise, and Bruccoli's Some Sort of Epic Grandeur for a more balanced perspective.

I've spent the last six months working my way through Scott Fitzgerald's novels and short stories. It became fairly obvious early on that a lot of what he was writing about in his fiction was autobiographical. I became interested in purchasing a biography so that I could get a feel for how much of his life he actually put into his work. I usually shy away from buying them because I find they are usually sensational or bland and almost never in between, but this book certainly runs against the norm. The many anecdotes (not all of them flattering) Meyer's includes in this biography give great insight into Fitzgerald's world and all of the inner demons that he struggled with within himself, not to mention those of his wife. Where other authors may have focused on his alcoholism, etc., Meyers never loses site of Fitzgerald, the extraordinary writer.

There's nothing new here. Old facts, little analysis, a boring narrative. More of a fan magazine profile than an in-depth biography. Very poorly done.

Though still seen today on cable Gary Cooper's movies only tell part of the story. A man that never said 2 words when one would do or even one when a look would do. The book helps us all to understand this Legend of the screen better. Little known facts about his childhood and extensive education are revealed. Proving that images of silence often conceal greater intelligence than the ramblings of the self absorbed.

Learn all about Wilson's foot fetish, the women he bedded, and the alcohol he consumed. Appreciate such sterling similes as "Wilson had an empirical, rationalistic mind, ready, like a ship with her steam up, to set out at once on the sea of thought." Wait for the paperback, and read it quickly