Biography

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Growing Up Roosevelt

A granddaughter's intimate portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt at her longtime home of Val-Kill as well as on a diplomatic trip to Europe and the Middle East.

Pepper Adams

A compelling biography of virtuoso, baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams and how his life intersected with some of the greatest poets, writers, painters, and musicians of his time.

Made in New York

How New Yorkers transformed the world!

The Livingstons of Livingston Manor

The complete history of one of New York State's—and the nation's—founding families.

The Radical Isaac

Examines the Yiddish-Hebrew writer I. L. Peretz's alignment with the Jewish working-class in Eastern Europe and his devotion to progressive politics.

Hawthorne's View of the Artist

The Hawthorne depicted by Professor Bell in these pages will be as much of a surprise to many readers as is his appearance in the rare 1847 daguerreotype reproduced on the book-jacket. "This virtually ...

Amos Oz

Explores the writer's enduring literary and political legacy.

Harold Taylor and Sarah Lawrence College

Edited by Craig Kridel
Foreword by Leon Botstein
Subjects: General Interest
Series: Excelsior Editions

The engaging memoir of a college president and public intellectual who became one of America's leading mid-twentieth-century social and educational activists.

Weber and Fields

The first and best biography of this pioneering comic duo and Broadway Stars--in a new edition!

The First Chief Justice

Chronicles the efforts of the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court to establish a federal court system during the country's uncertain early years.

A Passionate Life

The first full biography of W. H. H. Murray (1849-1904), a Boston preacher often described as the father of the American outdoor movement and the modern vacation.

Philosophy as Stranger Wisdom

The first complete intellectual biography of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers of the twentieth century, Leo Strauss.

FDR's Budgeteer and Manager-in-Chief

First study of Harold D. Smith, FDR’s budget director from 1939 to 1945.

Ida Rubinstein

The critical biography of a dynamic and under-represented figure who produced and starred in some of the most innovative works of her day.

Lionel Jobert and the American Civil War

Tells the exciting tale of a highly ambitious Frenchman who commanded a New York Regiment during the American Civil War.

Vera and the Ambassador

A behind-the-scenes look at diplomacy and international relations in post-communist Eastern Europe.

Super Schoolmaster

Traces the controversial poet’s thinking about teaching and learning throughout his career.

The Impeachment of Governor Sulzer

Brings to life the dramatic and colorful career of William Sulzer (1863–1941), former governor of New York State.

Michael Gold

An authoritative biography of the dean of American proletarian writers during the interwar years.

A Most Glorious Ride

Edited by Edward P. Kohn
Subjects: History
Series: Excelsior Editions

Encompasses key years and important events in Theodore Roosevelt’s early life and career.

Fearless

Biography of the early years of A. Bartlett Giamatti, who would become Yale University’s first non-Anglo-Saxon Protestant president and commissioner of Major League Baseball.

King Chǒngjo, an Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea

The first detailed analysis in English of monarchy and governance in Korea during King Chŏngjo’s reign.

Rule, Britannia!

Assesses how cinematic biographies of key figures reflect and shape what it means to be British.

Sons of Sarasvatī

Edited and translated by Chinya V. Ravishankar
Introduction by Chinya V. Ravishankar
Subjects: Asian Studies

Presents rare biographies of traditional Indian scholars during the nineteenth century, a critical moment of transition for the Indian intellectual tradition.

Judith S. Kaye in Her Own Words

A memoir and selected writings by the former Chief Judge of New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

Inside North Korea’s Theocracy

By Ra Jong-yil
Translated by Jinna Park
Subjects: Asian Studies

Offers biographical accounts of several of North Korea’s leaders to illuminate the inner workings of its government.

Popovers and Candlelight

Recounts the true story of an entrepreneurial woman who succeeded in a male-dominated industry in the twentieth century.

Sabina Spielrein

Explores the life and work of psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein through a feminist and mytho-poetic lens.

Adriaen van der Donck

The first comprehensive biography of an important yet understudied figure in the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

Ronald W. Walters and the Fight for Black Power, 1969-2010

Combines history and biography to interpret the last half century of black politics in America as represented in the life and work of a pivotal African American public intellectual.

Diasporic Blackness

Examines the life of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg through the lens of both Blackness and latinidad.

Herbert H. Lehman

The definitive biography of New York State's four-term Governor, US Senator, humanitarian, and Jewish liberal political reformer.

Invented Lives, Imagined Communities

How Hollywood biopics both showcase and modify various notions of what it means to be an American.

Knickerbocker Commodore

Explores the life and times of John Drake Sloat, the US Navy Pacific Squadron commander who occupied Monterey and declared the annexation of California at the beginning of the war with Mexico.

Beirut on the Bayou

By Raif Shwayri
Subjects: Area Studies

Tells the story of Lebanese immigrant Alfred Nicola, the fortune he began building as a peddler in Louisiana, and the family that founded Al-Kafaat University, an iconic institution serving the underprivileged and disabled of Lebanon, through two centuries of unrest in the Middle East.

William Cullen Bryant

A biography of one of nineteenth-century America’s foremost poets and public intellectuals.

Creating a College That Works

Examines the life of education activist Audrey Cohen and her founding of Metropolitan College of New York.

Ingenious Machinists

Uses the stories of two inventors who took different paths to examine the early industrial revolution in New York and New England.

The Last Amateur

The authoritative biography of a nineteenth-century polymath.

Casual Affairs

Follows the life and career of Sally Benson, acclaimed writer of New Yorker fiction and Hollywood screenplays.

Ecology Is Permanent Economy

Explores the nonviolent philosophy and environmental activism of India’s Sunderlal Bahuguna.

Envisioning Sociology

Examines the continuing relevance of early British sociologists Victor Branford, Patrick Geddes, and their associates.

Oreos and Dubonnet

A behind-the-scenes look at one of New York's most colorful and influential governors.

Passionate Commitments

A story of two twentieth-century American women whose love for each other fueled their work to create an egalitarian world.

Mr. New York

The life and times of an instrumental figure in New York City’s recovery from the fiscal and social crises of the 1970s and 1980s, and in the general revitalization of the city over two generations.

William Almon Wheeler

An American success story about the life of William Almon Wheeler, a poor boy from northern New York who became the nineteenth vice president of the United States.

Fight All Day, March All Night

By Wayne Mahood
Subjects: History
Series: Excelsior Editions

An inspiring narrative of a young Civil War soldier, as told though his letters from the battlefield.

Richard Varick: A Forgotten Founding Father

The life of a prominent Dutch-American patriot.

Faithful to the Task at Hand

The story of Lucy Diggs Slowe, a pioneering African American figure in sports and education

Corbino

A biography of one of America’s neglected grand masters.

Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1586-1643)

A biography of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, one of the founding directors of the Dutch West India Company and a leading figure in the establishment of the New Netherland colony

Roman Candle

A multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist, whose restless voice and spirit seem as alive today as ever.

The Man Who Saved New York

A dramatic and colorful portrait of one of New York’s most remarkable governors, Hugh L. Carey, with emphasis on his leadership during the fiscal crisis of 1975.

The Quotable Judge Posner

Collection of quotations and judicial opinions of federal appellate judge Richard A. Posner

But One Race

Biography of famous black abolitionist and voting rights advocate, Robert Purvis.

My Life at the Gym

Edited by Jo Malin
Subjects: Gender And Sexuality

Personal accounts celebrating the place of exercise in women’s lives—and as the site of women’s community.

King of the Bowery

The first full-length biography of Timothy D. "Big Tim" Sullivan, who dominated New York City politics in the three decades prior to World War I.

Going Blind

Memoir and meditation on blindness.

The Firekeeper

An epic adventure based on the extraordinary historical story of Sir William Johnson and the author's dreams of a Mohawk "woman of power" who lived three centuries ago.

White Savage

Brings a strikingly original perspective to Johnson’s life, and suggests new ways of thinking about Johnson’s part in creating a nation he did not live to see.

The Reason for Crows

The story of a 17th century Mohawk woman's interaction with her land, the Jesuits, and the religion they brought.

Teacher and Comrade

By Alan Wieder
Subjects: Education

A biographical/narrative study of oppression, racism, and resistance in twentieth-century South Africa through the life of Richard Dudley, a teacher/politico.

Oppenheimer's Choice

Studies J. Robert Oppenheimer’s choice to accept leadership of the Manhattan Project.

Citizen Teacher

The first book-length biography of Margaret Haley (1861–1939) focuses on her political vision, her activities as a public school activist, and her life as a charismatic woman leader.

The Participating Citizen

An in-depth biography of the philosopher who brought phenomenology to the social sciences.

Ken Wilber

The first comprehensive overview of the life and thought of the American philosopher Ken Wilber.

Rescuing the World

A biography of one of America's leading humanitarians who, as an advisor to nine presidents, also had a lasting effect on American foreign policy.

Onetti and Others

Explores the connections between Onetti, a foundational figure of the 1960s "Boom" in Latin American literature, and other relevant writers and texts from Latin America and beyond.

The Political Consequences of Thinking

Applies the perspectives of gender and ethnicity in a feminist analysis of the Eichmann controversy and offers a wholly new interpretation of Arendt's work, from Eichmann in Jerusalem to The Life of the Mind.

Boehme

This is a biography of one of the most original and one of the least understood seminal writers of the Baroque world, Jacob Boehme.

In a period tormented by mysteries and controversies, Boehme's visionary ...

The Darkness and the Light

In this book Charles Hartshorne continues his contribution to the field with autobiographical reflections, showing the causal conditions which made his career possible.

"There is some advantage in associating ...

Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli and Papal Politics in European Affairs

Coppa provides the first full-length study of Giacomo Antonelli, friend and advisor to Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono) and his Secretary of State and chief minister from 1849 to 1876. Based on the documents of ...

Teresa - A Woman

She was a saint, a mystic, a reformer, a legend, and she was a fascinating and complex woman. This is the first full-scale biography of Saint Teresa of Avila from a human, nonconfessional point of view. ...

Sarah

Sarah is the detailed case history of a UCLA undergraduate, written by a UCLA psychology professor. It is a unique case of psychological survival. Despite vicious sexual abuse, Sarah has managed to adapt, ...

The World of Yesterday's Humanist Today

Edited by Marion Sonnenfeld
Subjects: General Interest

Fifty years ago, Stefan Zweig, who committed suicide in 1942, was the most widely read and translated living writer in the world. Zweig's Vienna was a world of bright, brittle superficialities, in which ...

Newdick's Season of Frost

In 1935 Professor Robert Newdick of Ohio State University wrote to Robert Frost—already America's most famous living poet—in order to suggest certain revisions in the arrangement of the poet's collected ...