A brave British widow goes to Siam and-by dint of her principled and indomitable character-inspires that despotic nation to abolish slavery and absolute rule: this appealing legend first took shape after the Civil War when Anna Leonowens came to America from Bangkok and succeeded in becoming a celebrity author and lecturer. But who was Leonowens and why did her story take hold? Alfred Habegger, an award-winning biographer, draws on the archive...
Emily Dickinson, probably the most loved and certainly the greatest of American poets, continues to be seen as the most elusive. One reason she has become a timeless icon of mystery for many readers is that her developmental phases have not been clarified. In this exhaustively researched biography, Alfred Habegger presents the first thorough account of Dickinson's growth-a richly contextualized story of genius in the process of formation and t...
A biography of the passionate, contradictory father of William, Henry and Alice James. The author counters the popular view that Henry James Sr was a "benignant" man who devoted himself to the good of his children, preached tolerance, and practised self-effacement.
