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"[The author] traces the full arc of Thoreau’s life, from his early days in the intellectual hothouse of Concord, when the American experiment still felt fresh and precarious, and 'America was a family affair, earned by one generation and about to pass to the next.' By the time he died in 1862, at only forty-four years of age, Thoreau had witnessed the transformation of his world from a community of farmers and artisans into a bustling, interconnected commercial nation. What did that portend for the contemplative individual and abundant, wild nature that Thoreau celebrated? Drawing on Thoreau’s copious writings, published and unpublished, [the author] presents a Thoreau vigorously alive ...
Presents the text of the 1988 Tony Award-winning play in which diplomat Rene Gallimard, a captive of the French government, relives his twenty-year affair with a beautiful, elusive Chinese actress who turned out to be not only a spy, but a man in disguise, and includes comments by the author.
“A thesis of a play, unafraid of complexities and contradictions, pepped up with a light dramatic fizz. It asks whether race is skin-deep, actable or even fakeable, and it does so with huge wit and brio.” -TimeOut London “A pungent play of ideas with a big heart. Yellow Face brings to the national discussion about race a sense of humor a mile wide, an even-handed treatment and a hopeful, healing vision of a world that could be” –Variety “It’s about our country, about public image, about face,” says David Henry Hwang about his latest work, a mock documentary that puts Hwang himself center stage. An exploration of Asian identity and the ever-changing definition of what it is to...
Henry Friendly is frequently grouped with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, and Learned Hand as the best American jurists of the twentieth century. In this first, comprehensive biography of Friendly, Dorsen opens a unique window onto how a judge of this caliber thinks and decides cases, and how Friendly lived his life.
THE STORY: CHINGLISH is a hilarious comedy about the challenges of doing business in a country whose language--and underlying cultural assumptions--can be worlds apart from those of the West. The play tells the adventures of Daniel, an American busin
The highly-anticipated biography of Henry VIII. The significance of his reign is, at times, overshadowed by his six marriages. This book, however, will look beyond the marriages to explore the man, his obsessions, his life and his legacy.
A major new biography of the most infamous king of England.
Throughout his career, David Henry Hwang has explored the complexities of forging Eastern and Western cultures in a contemporary America. Over the past twenty years, his extraordinary body of work has been marked by a deep desire to reaffirm the common humanity in all of us. This volume collects a generous selection of Mr. Hwang’s plays, including FOB, The Dance and the Railroad, Family Devotions, The Sound of a Voice, The House of Sleeping Beauties, The Voyage, Bondage, and Trying to Find Chinatown.
“A vivid, moving play in perfect command of its eternal theme of family and change.” –Wall Street Journal “Written with insight, compassion, and a sharp eye for the unintended consequences of clashing cultures, Golden Child is one of Hwang’s best works, as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.” –Backstage David Henry Hwang draws on the true stories told to him by his grandmother of his great-grandfather’s break with Confucian tradition by his conversion to Christianity, and the eventual unbinding of his daughter’s feet. A “skillfully-told story that engages the emotions as well as the brain,” Golden Child explores the impact of these decisions on each of his great-gr...
“Richard Pryor was chain lightning to everything around him. He shocked the world through with human electricity. He blew all our comfortable balance to hell. And Furious Cool captures it brilliantly.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin Richard Pryor was arguably the single most influential performer of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly he was the most successful black actor/comedian ever. Controversial and somewhat enigmatic during his life, Pryor’s performances opened up a whole new world of possibilities, merging fantasy with angry reality in a way that wasn’t just new—it was theretofore unthinkable. Now, in this groundbreaking and revelato...