DescriptionCarl Sandburg wrote poems with such soulfulness, lyric grace, and love and compassion for the common man that he was known as a "poet of the people." Here is a collection of 95 of his best works, including "Chicago, " "Fog, " "To a Contemporary Bunkshooter, " "Masses, " and "The Great Hunt, " as well as other verses on themes like love, war, death, loneliness, immigrant life, and the beauty of nature. These early poems, which earned him enormous popularity in the 1920s and '30s and a Pulitzer Prize in 1951, are read here by Susan Anspach, Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert Foxworth, Elliott Gould, Joel Grey, Ernie Hudson, Arte Johnson, Melissa Manchester, Kevin McCarthy, Carl Reiner, Burt Reynolds, Jean Smart, Alfre Woodard, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
DescriptionThe Hours is the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, a beloved friend of ailing poet Richard Brown, who one fine New York morning goes about planning a party in his honor; Laura Brown, who in a 1950's Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb, and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway . By the end of the novel, the stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace.
DescriptionA vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today. When Quoyle, a 36-year-old, thir…
DescriptionLonesome Dove is a dusty little Texas town where heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers embody the spirit and defiance of the last wilderness. Larry McMurtry's American epic, set in the late 19th century, tells the story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana, a drive that represents not only a daring foolhardy adventure, but a part of the American Dream for everyone involved. Lee Horsley, one of TV's most popular leading men and star of the Old West series Paradise, narrates this compelling saga.
DescriptionFrank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, movingly read in his own voice, bears all the marks of a classic. Born in Depression-era Brooklyn to Irish immigrant parents, Frank was later raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. His mother, Angela, had no money to feed her children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely worked, and when he did, he drank his wages. Angela's Ashes is the story of how Frank endured - wearing shoes repaired with tires, begging for a pig's head for Christmas dinner, and searching the pubs for his father - a tale he relates with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness. Listen to Frank McCourt talk about this book on C-SPAN's Booknotes (7/11/97).
