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Title	Author	Description
Alice James: A Biography Alice James	Jean Strouse Strouse	Alice James grew up in one of the most remarkable of 19th-century American families, and she was groomed to be no less remarkable than her brothers Henry and William. But a succession of poorly diagnosed ailments confined her to her bed for years at a time. Jean Strouse’s Bancroft Prize–winning biography is a portrait of a thwarted life, and a panoramic recreation of the particular intellectual world in which it came to be. Contributors: Colm Tóibín
Love's Work Love's Work	Gillian Rose Rose	Written as the author was dying of cancer, Love’s Work is a personal and philosophical meditation on fallibility and the endurance of love. “A masterpiece of the autobiographer’s art, intense and rationally decorous at the same time.” —Edward Said Contributors: Michael Wood
Hons and Rebels Hons and Rebels	Jessica Mitford Mitford	In Hons and Rebels Jessica Mitford tells about her upbringing, which, she drily remarks, "even for England, in those far-off days of the middle twenties...was not exactly conventional...." Contributors: Christopher Hitchens
The Sun King Sun King	Nancy Mitford Mitford	Nancy Mitford crafts a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV and Versailles, recreating the daily life of the King, his court, and his ministers during France’s golden age. “Nancy Mitford gives vivid, indeed searching, portraits of the Grand Monarch, and of his awe-struck relations and courtiers.... Readers will wish that her book were twice as long. —Sunday Times Contributors: Philip Mansel
Voltaire in Love Voltaire in Love	Nancy Mitford Mitford	The inimitable Nancy Mitford’s account of Voltaire’s 16-year affair with Émilie du Châtelet—a renowned mathematician and scientist—is a spirited romp in the company of two extraordinary individuals as well as an erudite and gossipy guide to the French Enlightenment. “Voltaire in Love caps [Mitford's] career as the nonpareil popular biographer of that era.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Contributors: Adam Gopnik
An Armenian Sketchbook Armenian Sketchbook	Vasily Grossman Grossman	Vasily Grossman wrote not only one of the great Russian novels of the 20th-century (Life and Fate), but also vivid reportage, moving essays, and brilliant travel journals. This account of two months he spent in Armenia in the mid-60s is the most intimate of his works. Suppressed during his life, it is here available in English for the first time. Contributors: Robert Chandler , Yury Bit-Yunan , Elizabeth Chandler
Original Letters from India Original Letters from India	Eliza Fay Fay	It took Eliza Fay over a year to travel from London to Calcutta at the end of the eighteenth century. The letters she wrote along the way are unguarded and lively and provide an unparalleled view of the adventure that was travel in days past. Contributors: E.M. Forster
Young Man with a Horn Young Man with a Horn	Dorothy Baker Baker	This book, loosely inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke, is widely regarded as the first jazz novel, and it courses with the verve and swing of the sound that defined an era. It is the story of Rick Martin, a prodigy whose dedication to music cannot save him from self destruction. "Got a kid who's into music? This is the book. Interested in the Jazz Age? Ditto. Or just looking for a short novel that you can't put down? Here you go."—Jesse Kornbluth Contributors: Gary Giddins
My Father and Myself My Father and Myself	J. R. Ackerley Ackerley	Ackerley's pursuit of his father is also an exploration of the self, making My Father and Myself a pioneering record, at once sexually explicit and emotionally charged, of life as a gay man. Contributors: W.H. Auden
My Dog Tulip My Dog Tulip	J. R. Ackerley Ackerley	Ackerley has written a book that is a profound and subtle meditation on the strangeness abiding at the heart of all relationships. "This is one of the greatest masterpieces of animal literature." —Christopher Isherwood Contributors: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas