Casual affairs

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Michael Shnayerson

He was one of America's greatest storytellers. The Young Lions; Rich Man, Poor Man; The Girls in their Summer Dresses, novels, essays, dramas, screenplays, and some of the finest short stories of our century: in seventy-one years crowded with accomplishment and contradiction, Irwin Shaw wrote them all. Success came early, but then he had to struggle with the temptations of success. He achieved a greater level of celebrity than most writers of his generation, then had to grapple with the demons that celebrity brings. He was known everywhere for his generosity and charm, but became almost as legendary for his battles -- with the Group Theatre, with The New Yorker, with his book publishers, with competitors such as Hemingway, with his wife in their stormy marriage. - Jacket flap.

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Jeffrey Meyers

This biography of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), a giant of American literature who invented both the horror and detective genres, is a portrait of extremes: a disinherited heir, a brilliant but exploited author and editor, a man who veered radically from temperance to rampant debauchery, an agnostic who sought a return to religion at the end of his life. Acclaimed biographer Jeffrey Meyers explores the writer's turbulent life and career, including his marriage and multiple, simultaneous romances, his literary feuds, and his death at an early age under bizarre and troubling circumstances. - Back cover.

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Catherine Ross-Stroud

"Much has been written about the state of black adolescence - often from a sociological point of view situating black teens in an at-risk category. However, through her characters, young adult author Janet McDonald (1954-2007) presents the wide range of adolescent life. McDonald presents the multifarious views of society in relation to the self efficacious drive of urban teens to rise above their circumstances by any means necessary." "This book is a biocritical study of McDonald and her work as it relates to the contribution she has made to teen fiction. It explains McDonald's profoundly realistic fiction, which holds wide appeal for teens in search of answers to the coming of age mystery."--BOOK JACKET.

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Tobias Wolff

Wolff's account of his boyhood and the process of growing up includes paper routes, whiskey, scouting, fistfights, friendship, and betrayal in 1950s America.