Viaje al pasado (1936–1939)

Sample

Ivan Bunin

On July 30, 1925, Vera Muromtseva-Bunina, the wife of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin (who was soon to win the Nobel Prize for Literature), wrote in her diary: "Ian [her name for her husband] has torn up and burned all his diary manuscripts. I am very angry. 'I don't want to be seen in my underwear,' he told me." Seeing Vera so upset, Bunin confided to her: "I have another diary in the form of a notebook...". This is the diary that Bunin published in 1936 with the title Cursed Days. Set against the backdrop of Moscow and Odessa in 1918 and 1919, it is a scathing account of the Bolshevik takeover and of the last days of the Russian master in his homeland. Banned during the years of Soviet power, Cursed Days is now translated into English for the first time, with an introduction and notes by Thomas Gaiton Marullo, Bunin's foremost interpreter in the West. Cursed Days, Thomas Marullo observes in his introduction, foreshadows the later anti-Soviet memoirs of Nadezhda Mandelstam, Evgeniya Ginzburg, and others, and the rebellions of Bulgakov and Pasternak.

Sample

Lucie Bertrand

"Ce que l'on conçoit bien s'énonce clairement", écrivait Boileau dans son Art poétique. Comment cependant "concevoir bien" une situation si monstrueusement hors du commun que l'enfer des camps de concentration ? Au problème pour le moins épineux de la création de l'écrit concentrationnaire s'ajoute celui de la réception. La plupart de ceux qui ont connu les camps sont morts : c'est à un public essentiellement constitué de néophytes que le rescapé s'adresse. "Ce qui est inconcevable peut s'exprimer clairement", c'est ce que nous apprend L'espèce humaine. Encore faut-il, pour le comprendre, concevoir que "clairement" renvoie moins à une clarté textuelle qu'à une écriture éclairante.

Sample

Scott O'Grady, with Michael French

U.S. Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady tells how he evaded capture and stayed alive with little water and no food in enemy territory after the F-16 he was flying on a peace-keeping mission in Bosnia was shot down.

Sample

Jacob R. Hildebrand

A Mennonite Journal is a unique story of Civil War home-front life recorded by Jacob R. Hildebrand, a devout father, faithful Mennonite, and successful farmer. It provides insight into his political activities, support of the Southern cause, and the military service of his three sons, not all fully consistent with Mennonite beliefs. Jacob Hildebrand took practical steps to assist his three sons in the Army of Northern Virginia; often traveling to their camps to deliver food and clothing necessary to supplement inadequate army rations. The family's story shows that the strong pacifist beliefs of the Mennonite church were not always observed by many of its members who supported the Southern cause and honored days of prayer and humility proclaimed by Jefferson Davis. The Journal describes Augusta County's contribution of men and supplies to three Virginia regiments: the 5th and 52nd Infantry and the 1st Cavalry: it includes Jacob's observations of Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign, the 1864 raids by Hunter and Sheridan, the Battle of Piedmont and the death of General W. E. "Grumble" Jones and the Battle of Waynesboro, which marked the end of Jubal Early's military career and the last major battle in the Valley. The Journal also describes the war's many impacts on families in the Augusta County farming community just north of Staunton and Waynesboro, Virginia.