This book, based on a series of talks given at the New York Library, biographers Robert Caro, David McCullough, Paul C. Nagel, Richard B. Sewall, Ronald Steel and Jean Strouse explain how and why they went about writing biographies in the way that they did.

Each biographer explains well how the life of the biographer becomes intertwined with that of the person they are researching. In each case, they stress that biography writing is both intense and time-consuming.

Lyndon B. Johnson biographer, Robert Caro, recommends Francis Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe" for two reasons. One, to show that the job of the historian is to try to write at the same level as the greatest novelists. Second, that the duty of the historian is to go to the locales of the events that will be described, and not to leave, no matter how long it takes...until the writer has done his or her best to understand the locales and their cultures and their people.

In the end, it means that the biographer must not only understand the person, but also needs to intimately know the area where the person grew up and lived.

This book gives its readers new insights into the lives of some of this nation's most prominent figures, through the eyes of six well-known biographers. In "The Unexpected Harry Truman," David McCullough shows the life of Truman through new eyes. McCullough stresses that a biographer must genuinely care about his [or her] subject because you are living with that person every single day. The process is like that of choosing a spouse or roommate, therefore, the subjects that he chooses must have a degree of animal, human vitality. In Truman, he said, as with Theodore Roosevelt, he found no shortage of vitality.

McCullough created a detailed chronology, almost a diary of what Truman was doing from year to year, even day to day if the events were important enough. He also used primary sources, such as personal diaries, letters and documents from the time period. Truman poured himself out on paper and provided a large, wonderfully written base of writing for McCullough to sort through and "find" the man.

McCullough says that the magic of writing comes from not knowing where you are headed, what you are going to wind up feeling and what you are going to decide.

Richard Sewell's "In Search of Emily Dickinson," research process took twenty years and he says, "In the beginning I didn't go searching for her, she went searching for me." The process took him two sabbaticals, years of correspondence and meetings with Mabel Loomis Todd's daughter Millicent Todd Bingham to uncover the whole truth.

Paul Nagel's "The Adams Women," gives readers a sense of how important the women in the Adam's family were. Nagel said that contemplating the development of ideology is good training for a biographer. After all, he said, the intellectual historian takes an idea and brings it to life. For Nagel, working with ideas establishes a bridge into the mind and life of the people who had the ideas he studies.

Nagel said that he likes and admires women and this is why, after writing about the Adams' men, he wrote about the Adams' women. Nagel also said that he has learned and taught his students that our grasp of history must always remain incomplete.

Ronald Steel said, that the hardest job a biographer has is not to judge his or her subject, however, most fail to keep their judgements out of the biography.

In Jean Strouse's, "The Real Reasons," she explains that the modern biography examines how character affects and is affected by social circumstance. Biography also tells the reader a great deal about history and gives them a wonderful story.

In writing about Alice James, Strouse found that there was not an interesting plot line to her life other than that her brothers were writers Henry and William James.

Strouse, when asked by another writer about the descendents of the three James' children, she said that William's great-grandson in Massachusetts, tired of being asked whether he was related to Henry or William, moved to Colorado where he was asked whether he was related to Jesse or Frank. Strouse reported that he stayed in Colorado.

Strouse realized that in order to tell the story of the James' family, she was going to have to use her own voice to give life to the family, especially Alice. This is not recommended for all biographies, but in a case such as hers, it needs that biographer's voice to connect all the information for the reader.

In Robert Caro's, "Lyndon Johnson and the Roots of Power," he talked to the people who knew Johnson to get a sense of the former President from Texas and what made him worthy of a new biography. He wrote the biography to illuminate readers to the time period and what shaped the time, especially politically.

This book will help writers understand the steps he or she will need to take to write a biography. It shows the difficult research processes and makes the reader want to either write a biography about an interesting person or never want to write again. Either way, this book provides new insights that one may have never thought about before. I recommend this book to both beginning and seasoned writers

While not the 1st artist to take on the conceptions of light and its practical uses in art, now Flagstff, AZ. artist James Turrell has brought the perception of light in art to creative and fantastic new levels through his conceptions such as his famous "skyspaces" to "darkspaces," "blue rooms," etc. Many of his pieces offer low light level environments, some almost no light at all, still others brilliant hues of red and blue.

Like most artists, Turrell shies away from giving detailed explinations of his works so that each individual can surmise the piece for themselves. This is not necessarly the case in this work. Turrell wanted, (and did) to build a specific "skyscape" in order to view an eclipse that occurred in England. Like his other "skyscapes," Turrell took the environment and all of its factors, as well as very specific geometry, into account, so that he could construct the perfect medium through which to not just observe the eclipse, but to better magnify the light, or lack thereof, of the eclipse.

The book is a wonderful look at this process, complete with analysis and pictures of the eclipse, the "skyscape," etc. An added bonus is the cd by German composer Paul Schulze, who's approach to his music (a minimalist ambient style, normally) is a perfect match to Turrell's art.

Fans of Turrell, or those who are interested in the interplay between light, our senses, and the reality they both help us create, will find this rather short treatsie to be of invaluable use to them. A wonderfully intriguing work.

James Turrell has long been a major player in the field of light art, and visitors to the Matress Factory museum in Pittsburgh are well aware of his outstanding way of playing with art and images. This amusing meditation on an eclipse is an excellent addition to his body of work

This winter break I went on a Shakespeare buying spree, and this book is one of the fine gems I found. A large, but fascinating book, this work of great scholarship and excitement takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Shakespeare, even into rather obscure corners of his works (Trollius and Cressida, Timon of Athens). This book is a must read for any would be deep thinker about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare as Political Thinker is a must for everyone interested in the political thought of William Shakespeare. This reprint will finally allow new comers to become familair with a commonsensical approach to Shakespeare's plays. The introductory chapter by John Alvis is worth the price. Perhaps the best Shakespearean critic alive, Alvis has an uncanny ability to show Shakespeare's moral seriousness without making the bard an unquestioning adherent to any political school or theological creed. Many of the essays that follow are also well done: Jaffa's chapter on Shakespeare's entire corpus, Laurence Berns' meditation on Lear etc.

The second printing of Shakespeare as Political Thinker gives hope to those interested in relearning ancient wisdom and pays tribute to its inspiration, Shakespeare's Politics (Allan Bloom).

Organized crime doesn't occur in Canada; that's the perception I held until I read this book. Roberts and Snider opened my eyes to a different view.

Through the one-of-a-kind experiences of Cal Broeker, the writers demonstrate that the cancerous and adaptive Canuck underworld, with its global connections, is as gripping to read about as it would be fearsome to experience.

Collaboratively written by Paul William Roberts and Norman Snider, Smokescreen: One Man Against The Underworld is the true story Carl Broeker, an ordinary businessman who was betrayed by his partner and forced to confront a deadly, blacklist world of organized crime and illicit trafficking. Drawn into undercover work with the Secret Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Broeker found himself caught up in a deadly thrill ride of lies, deceits, crime in this compelling biographical narrative of international crime lords, illegal smuggling operations, and political corruption. Smokescreen strips away the subterfuge and lays bare the heretofore murky underworld or organized crime on both sides of the Canadian/American border.

a great book for every serious scientist in the field of sports medicine.In next edition i would be pleasure to see more
photos and details in dynamic stabilization exercises in real situations and criteria for advancing in the rehabilitation
program ,especially for elite, Olympic level athletes in gymnastic.
The spine in sports open new horizons in philosophy and research on spinal disorders with safe return in sports.

an excellent guide for treating spinal disorders in the field of almost all sport situations. In next edition i would prefer to see more photos and details from rehabilitation in real
situations,on dynamic stabilization exercises and criteria for advancing in the program for elite athletes especially in gymnastic.This book open new horizons in the philosophy of rehabilitation spinal injuries in sports.

My nine-year-old son loves this book. He says, "I like it because you can learn about monsters from different countries. It has real information that scientists have found." I am buying it because we checked it out of the library and he wanted to re-type all of the stories so he could read them over and over again.

Syd Kessler hits all the points of how to enjoy your life. His commonn sense approach on how to attain fulfilment in life is right on the money.

I enjoyed this book as it reveals the stories behind the stars. It is suprisingly inspirational. This wonderful book prompted me to read Barbara Barrie's equally wonderful book, Second Act about her bout with colon cancer. Both Books givew great insight into life. Fame, beauty and Stardom matters not. One does not feel alone after reading these two wonderful books. One never knows what waits.

I first read Journey of the Magi, I picked the book up at the library. I was totally shocked at the content, but nonetheless hooked. So much so that I went on the Net to track down the author to see if he had written other books. At first I wondered if he was arrogant, then I saw the true scholary intelligence of the writer. This is a brilliant man. A realist. If you wish to read something educational and so funny that I actually laugh out loud, this is the writer for you. I also felt that no matter his circumstances, he truly is a good compassionate man. I first read The journey of the Magi in January, I have since gone on to read all five of his books and I am a lifer. A brilliant read.

"India is a harsh mistress," Paul William Roberts admits in the amazing Empire of the Soul. "She seems to appreciate individual sacrifice so little. Yet she has never wanted for lovers." Roberts went searching for the "Truth" in India in the seventies and nineties, and instead discovered a land of paradox and extremes. His personal spiritual journey takes him to the ashrams and caves of holy men, the hippy community of Goa, and a millionaire drug dealer's hashish fields on India's border with China. Roberts pokes fun at "credit-card ascetics"--Westerners in Indian garb who look like they have American Express cards tucked away somewhere: "Don't renounce the world without it." Yet Oxford-educated Roberts himself spent a year following guru Sathya Sai Baba in Puttaparthi, who would become a lifelong influence. "Freaks look less freakish in India," Roberts writes. "Once you have seen a thousand naked sadhus running toward the Ganges River covered with ash from the cremation grounds, dreadlocks daubed with cow dung, nails driven through their tongues, you're hardly going to be upset about a guy with shoulder-length hair and a beard who wears beads and flower shirts." On the offbeat way he meets such figures as the fraudulent sex guru Bhagwan Rajneesh, George Harrison, Mother Teresa, and "The King of the Untouchables," who amassed a fortune doing a job no high-caste Brahmin would touch with a ten-foot pole: burning the corpses of the dead. Roberts rants fluently on topics ranging from the British Raj to the Vedic hymns. Whether in the slums of Calcutta or the crumbling palaces of maharajas, he turns his tragicomical eye inward to explore this religion-soaked realm. By turns hellish and divine, India is experienced for us by a modern literary mystic who has found his surrogate spiritual home; the reader is just along for the ride, but what a wild one it is. . . . --John M. Edwards

Roberts absolute tenacity regarding his subjects and complete dedication to every word he writes ensures readers feel themselves present in every encounter and experience. Availing himself full range of expression to write and live as cynic, mystic, adventurer, good friend, and seeker, Roberts takes us on strolls through the beautiful, humor-filled, and the bazarre. His concept of displaying in this work varying perspectives between two different trips to India that are seperated by decades of time as well as personal growth offers readers great awareness of the country and more so the man writing of it.

This is a unique book. Racy, interesting and yet profound in some ways. Being an Indian, I have always been fascinated by how non-Indians view India. This book did not disappoint.

It tells you vivid tales about spiritual India - many which even I dare not believe but can not dismiss either. Paul William Robert's account has a ring of sincerity and authenticity. Somehow we don't always realise what an interesting and unique place our country is. Things that we take to be ordinary, every-day happenings show up as unique through PWR's account. Is India really that strange?

The book is difficult to put down, if you are interested or puzzled by India. And if you were born in India but live abroad, consider buying it as a gift for your children. Trust me, they will not be disappointed. This book may not show the complete picture, but it does show a very important part of the picture. That too, with honesty and some sympathy.