Behind the Lines
Authors can be as interesting as the books they write, inspiring fascination decades and even centuries after the fact. Feed your curiosity and check out this mix of fiction, memoir, and history drawn from the lives of some of the most significant writers of the English language.
The Beats: A Graphic History by various
The Beats were a phenomenon of American literary and popular culture in the 50s and 60s, bringing a whole new sense of vocabulary, style, and livelihood into the mainstream. This book brings together a slew of comic artists and writers to take turns telling the true stories of quintessential authors and artists of the movement.
The Paris Wife by Paula McClain
Ernest Hemingway’s life was as big and thrilling as any of his books, at least that’s what he’d say. Get a new perspective on one of the biggest personas in American Lit. with this title. A deeply researched fictionalization of Hemingway's life in Paris from the perspective of his first wife Hadley.
The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja MillsHarper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a mandatory read in schools across the country. The release of the sequel last summer became one of the biggest literary events in recent memory, and all of this while living a private life in relative seclusion. Learn something about this reclusive author with an intimate peek into her early life and the world she inhabited, from a neighbor who knew her well.
Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill BrysonRenowned author Bill Bryson takes on the near mythic figure of William Shakespeare in this clever account of the 15th century bard’s life and work. Read as Bryson details his own journey of research and reflection as he shuffles through the few known facts of Shakespeare’s history, and the endless supposition and scholarship that’s piled up over that last few centuries.
The Brontes by Juliet BarkerAfter almost 200 years the work of the Bronte sisters is as relevant and popular as ever. This book takes a look at the complex and interesting lives of these pioneering women authors in meticulous detail, countering the fictitious narratives developed by their early biographers, and setting the record straight.
The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime by Harold Bloom
In this book literary critic Harold Bloom takes on some of the most significant writers in American history and connects their work into a broad study of the American writing tradition. From Nathaniel Hawthorne to William Faulkner, Bloom’s interest spans three centuries of American books and authors with an academic eye for detail and illumination.
Bloom can be a little long-winded but is the king of this sort of writing. Check out his books and books he has edited on Jane Austen, Arthur Miller, The King James Bible, and even just on reading in general.
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