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A brief biography of the author and college professor whose travels across the United States inspired her to write the poem which became the song "America the Beautiful."

"From classic pastoral themes both lyrical and reflective, to a verse play, to a dramatic narrative and the manic, entertaining, prescient ravings of Berry's Mad Farmer, these poems show a unity of language, consciousness, skill, and sensitivity, that has placed Wendell Berry at the front rank of contemporary American poets."--P. [4] of cover.

This memoir traces Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a sometimes disquieting, but always affecting picture of the people-and the times-that touched her life.

Originally published over one hundred years ago, Roughing It tells the (almost) true story of Mark Twain's rollicking adventures across the United States. A hilarious account of how the author tried finding wealth in the rocks of Nevada, it was published before his most famous works and shows why he would grow to become one of the most beloved American writers of all time.

Steinbeck recounts the experience of taking his car and his dog Charley to travel through the United States, to rediscover the country and its people.

In this collection of essays, Patchett turns her writer's eye on her own experiences and transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew.

Ted Geisel loved to doodle from the time he was a kid. He had an offbeat, fun-loving personality. He often threw dinner parties where guests wore outrageous hats! And he donned quirky hats when thinking up ideas for books like his classic The Cat in the Hat. This biography, with black-and-white illustrations throughout, brings an amazingly gifted author/illustrator to life.

"His name is synonymous with high-stakes wilderness survival stories. Now, beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen,...

The national bestselling biography and the basis for the film Capote starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in an Academy Award–winning turn. One of the strongest fiction writers of his generation, Truman Capote became a literary star while still in his teens. His most phenomenal successes include Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood, and Other Voices, Other Rooms. Even while his literary achievements were setting the standards that other fiction and...

A brief biography of the popular author, focusing on how she became a writer. Incudes information on setting goals.