Search Results: Biography - Writers from I Cannot Live Without Books

A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman by Alice Kessler- Harris
THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.
She was a literary icon and a groundbreaking figure as the most successful playwright in American history. She was also one of the few artists who stood up to the political witchunts of the 1950s, with her crisp declaration "I will not cut my consciousness to fit this year's fashions." Yet Lillian Hellman is today remembered as a toxic, unrepentant Stalinist and a literary fabulist -- the author about whom Mary McCarthy said, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" In A Difficult Woman, the historian Alice Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare: a reclamation of this combative, controversial woman who crossed so many political and cultural fault lines.
Hellman was a bristling bundle of contradictions: a passionate political activist without a party; an artist immersed to the teeth in commerce; a writer whose… Read More

Goldeneye -- Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica by Matthew Parker
For two months every year, from 1946 to his death eighteen years later, Ian Fleming lived at Goldeneye, the house he built on a point of high land overlooking a small white sand beach on Jamaica's stunning north coast. All the James Bond novels and stories were written here.
This book explores the huge influence of Jamaica on the creation of Fleming's iconic post-war hero. The island was for Fleming part retreat from the world, part tangible representation of his own values, and part exotic fantasy. It examines his Jamaican friendships -- his extraordinary circle included Errol Flynn, the Oliviers, international politicians, British royalty, as well as his close neighbor Noel Coward -- and traces his changing relationship with Ann Charteris and the emergence of Blanch Blackwell as his Jamaican soulmate.
Goldeneye also compares the real Jamaica of the 1950s during the build-up to independence with the island's portrayal in the… Read More

Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett
We all know about James Bond, the world's most famous secret agent, but how many of us are familiar with his creator, Ian Fleming? In this exciting full-length biography, Andrew Lycett tells the story of Ian Fleming's life, which was just as dramatic as that of his fictional creation. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Fleming joined Britain's Naval Intelligence Division at the start of the Second World War, masterminding many covert operations and liaising at the highest level with the American secret services. He subsequently worked as a newspaper executive and, in 1953, realized a long-held dream when he published a novel called Casino Royale and so introduced James Bond to the world.
Set in extravagant locations in England, Switzerland, Jamaica, and the United States, his life was peopled with luminaries such as Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Noel Coward, Evelyn Wauch, Sean Connery, and Bond film producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli. With direct access to Fleming's… Read More