A Leg to Stand on

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Kay Redfield Jamison

"The best-selling author of An Unquiet Mind now gives us a groundbreaking life of one of the major American poets of the twentieth century that is at the same time a fascinating study of the relationship between manic-depressive (bipolar) illness, creative genius, and character. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry, Robert Lowell (1917-1977) put his manic-depressive illness into the public domain. Now Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison brings her expertise to bear on his story, illuminating the relationship between bipolar illness and creativity, and examining how Lowell's illness and the treatment he received came to bear on his work. His New England roots, early breakdowns, marriages to three eminent writers, friendships with other poets, vivid presence as a teacher and writer refusing to give up in the face of mental illness--Jamison gives us Lowell's life through a lens that focuses our understanding of the poet's intense discipline, courage, and commitment to his art. Jamison had unprecedented access to Lowell's medical records, as well as to previously unpublished drafts and fragments of poems, and was the first biographer to speak to his daughter. With this new material and a psychologist's deep insight, Jamison delivers a bold, sympathetic account of a poet who was--both despite and because of mental illness--a passionate, original observer of the human condition"--

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Doug Underwood

To attract readers, journalists have long trafficked in the causes of trauma--crime, violence, warfare--as well as psychological profiling of deviance and aberrational personalities. Novelists, in turn, have explored these same subjects in developing their characters and by borrowing from their own traumatic life stories to shape the themes and psychological terrain of their fiction. In this book, Doug Underwood offers a conceptual and historical framework for comprehending the impact of trauma and violence in the careers and the writings of important journalist-literary figures in the United States and British Isles from the early 1700s to today. Grounded in the latest research in the fields of trauma studies, literary biography, and the history of journalism, this study draws upon the lively and sometimes breathtaking accounts of popular writers such as Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Graham Greene, and Truman Capote, exploring the role that trauma has played in shaping their literary works. Underwood notes that the influence of traumatic experience upon journalistic literature is being reshaped by a number of factors, including news media trends, the advance of the Internet, the changing nature of the journalism profession, the proliferation of psychoactive drugs, and journalists' greater self-awareness of the impact of trauma in their work. The most extensive scholarly examination of the role that trauma has played in the shaping of our journalistic and literary heritage, Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss discusses more than a hundred writers whose works have won them fame, even at the price of their health, their families, and their lives.

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Teresa Rhyne

"What would cause a cheese-loving, meat-eating lawyer to become a vegan? Her dog. Teresa Rhyme and Seamus the beagle both survived cancer once, so when Seamus develops yet another cancer, Teresa vows to fight again. Unsure of the best way to battle the unseen enemy, she embarks on some experiments to create a healthier life for her family. She finds better food for Seamus, and a plant-based diet becomes her own guide, but she realized that's not enough for her--and it's not enough for the animals. As she searches for a more compassionate lifestyle, she struggles to find her place somewhere between a hypocrite in leather high heels and a hippie in a hemp skirt, all while coping with the threat of Seamus slipping away. When she encounters two other dogs who need help, including one rescued from animal testing, turning away seems impossible after everything she's discovered. Will turning her life upside down to rescue two more beagles be the best medicine for everyone?"--Back cover.

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Margy Dieguez

"The year was 1952 ... and in one moment that summer my life was changed forever. A dreaded virus was running rampant throughout the United States. Technically called infantile paralysis, this virus was more commonly known as polio. There had been sixty thousand documented cases and three thousand deaths that year, the last big epidemic before Dr. Jonas Salk discovered his vaccine. At fifteen years old I was diagnosed with this disease that the entire United States feared. My story is one of finding a way to overcome everyday problems posing monumental obstacles. After forty days in an iron lung; in an isolation ward for five months and eight months of rehabilitation, and being unable to use my arms and legs normally I had many challenges. Learning to walk again I married and had children but soon I was alone raising a six year old son and two year old daughter. It is my belief that my life has been what it was supposed to be. I believe I have lived life to the fullest and for that I am forever grateful for all the amazing people who helped me along the way and the amazing God who made it all possible Courage The measure of one's courage should not be judged alone by how tall a mountain is but also by how tall was the mountain to the one who climbed it."--Back cover.