Tag archieven: Yale University Press

Biografie, Joden

Jewish Lives Biography Series

Jewish Lives Biography Series Books from Yale University Press. What books have appeared in the Jewish Lives series of biographies from Yale University Press? Which Jewish person is the biography about? Who is the author of the biography?

Jewish Lives Biography Series

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. Jewish Lives is a partnership of Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation.

Which new biography will appear in the Jewish Lives series in 2026?

The overview below shows the latest books in the Jewish Lives series. The newest biographies are at the top of the list. Links lead to detailed information about the biography, the author, and ordering options.

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan Biography reviewMordecai M. Kaplan

Restless Soul

  • Author: Jenna Weissman Joselit (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 32.50
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: Rabbi, writer, teacher, and thinker, Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881–1983) was one of the leading Jewish personalities of twentieth-century America. Founder of the Reconstructionist movement, he was a maverick who reshaped religious faith and practice, generating controversy at every turn. Known for his relentless energy and imagination, Kaplan redefined Jewish identity, emphasizing reason over superstition, and intellectual discovery over passive inheritance. He introduced new rituals, reevaluated the role of tradition, and advocated for a Judaism that evolved with the times and fostered inclusive community…read on >

Daniel Okrent Stephen Sondheim biography reviewStephen Sondheim

Art Isn’t Easy

  • Author: Daniel Okrent (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 35.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) was a towering figure in American musical theater. Celebrated for his iconic Broadway shows such as Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, his accolades include eight Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. In this intimate biography, Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing and his parents’ divorce, his acquaintance with Oscar Hammerstein II and subsequent discovery of musical theater, and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer…read on >

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography reviewWalter Benjamin

The Pearl Diver

  • Author: Peter E. Gordon (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: February 24, 2026
  • Length: 224 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 28.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the twentieth century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, he developed a unique style of criticism—his friend Hannah Arendt called it pearl-diving—that sought out fragments of redemption in the ruins of bourgeois civilization…read on >

Overview of all biographies in the Jewish Lives series

The overview of all biographies in the Jewish Lives series is categorized by the name of the Jewish person described in the book.

  • Abraham: The First Jew, by Anthony Julius
  • Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud, by Barry W. Holtz
  • Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel, by Anita Shapira
  • Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam, by Steven Nadler
  • Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy, by James Traub
  • Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver, by Peter E. Gordon
  • Bernard Berenson: A Life in the Picture Trade, by Rachel Cohen
  • Irving Berlin: New York Genius, by James Kaplan
  • Sarah Bernardt: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt, by Robert Gottlieb
  • Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician, by Allen Shawn
  • Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew, by Avner Holtzman
  • Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist, by Pierre Birnbaum
  • Franz Boas: In Praise of Open Minds, by Noga Arika
  • Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet, by Jeffrey Rosen
  • Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew, by Jeremy Dauber
  • Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, by Paul Mendes-Flohr
  • Moshe Dayan: Israel’s Controversial Hero, by Mordechai Bar-On
  • David: The Divided Heart, by David Wolpe
  • Benjamin Disraeli: The Novel Politician, by David Cesarani
  • Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, by Maurice Samuels
  • Albert Einstein: His Space and Times, by Steven Gimbel
  • Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, by Daniel C. Matt
  • Anne Frank: The Many Lives of Anne Frank, by Ruth Franklin
  • Sigmund Freud: The Making of a Psychoanalyst, by Adam Phillips
  • Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter, by Rachel Shteir
  • Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life, by Vivian Gornick
  • Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World, by Martin Goodman
  • Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One, by Mark Kurlansky
  • Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern, by Francine Prose
  • Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures, by Adina Hoffman
  • Heinrich Heine: Writing the Revolution, by George Prochnick
  • Lillian Hellman: An Imperious Life, by Dorothy Gallagher
  • Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader, by Derek Penslar
  • Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement, by Julian E. Zelizer
  • Houdini: The Elusive American, by Adam Begley
  • Jabotinsky: A Life, by Hillel Halkin
  • Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch, by Yair Zakovitch
  • Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt, by Saul Friedländer
  • Mordecai M. Kaplan: Restless Soul, by Jenna Weissman Joselit
  • Carole King: She Made the Earth Move, by Jane Eisner
  • Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution, by Yehudah Mirsky
  • Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker, by David Mikics
  • Stan Lee: A Life in Comics, by Liel Leibovitz
  • Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life, by Berel Lang
  • Maimonides: Faith in Reason, by Alberto Manguel
  • Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows, by Arthur Lubow
  • Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, by Lee Siegel
  • Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution, by Shlomo Avineri
  • Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation, by Kenneth Turan
  • Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch, by Deborah E. Lipstadt
  • Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity, by Shmuel Feiner
  • Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death, by Lillian Faderman
  • Arthur Miller: American Witness, by John Lahr
  • Moses: A Human Life, by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
  • Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, by Robert Alter
  • Marcel Proust: The Search, by Benjamin Taylor
  • Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman, by Itamar Rabinovich
  • Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success, by Alexandra Popoff
  • Walther Rathenau: Weimar’s Fallen Statesman, by Shulamit Volkov
  • Sidney Reilly: Master Spy, by Benny Morris
  • Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power, by Marc Wortman
  • Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance, by Wendy Lesser
  • Julius Rosenwald: Repairing the World, by Hasia R. Diner
  • Philip Roth: Stung by Life, by Steven J. Zipperstein
  • Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel, by Annie Cohen-Solal
  • Ruth: A Migrants Tale, by Ilana Pardes
  • Menachem Mendel Schneerson: Becoming the Messiah, by Ezra Glinter
  • Gershom Scholem: Master of the Kabbalah, by David Biale
  • Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream, by Michael Shnayerson
  • Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom, by Steven Weitzman
  • Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn.t Easy, by Daniel Okrent
  • Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, by Molly Haskell
  • Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, by Ian Buruma
  • Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters, by Phyllis Rose
  • Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power, by Neal Gabler
  • Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, by Francine Klagsbrun
  • Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life, by Joshua Rubenstein
  • Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio, by David Thomson
  • Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence, by Joseph Berger
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes, by Anthony Gottlieb

Matching books

Geschiedenisboeken, Uitgeverij

A Little History Books

A Little History Books review, recensie en overzicht van de geschiedenisboeken die in deze reeks verschijnen bij Yale University Press. De universiteitsuitgeverij Yale University Press geeft deze  Little Histories geschiedenisboeken uit die inmiddels is uitgegroeid tot een reeks uitgaven van naam en faam. Op deze pagina lees je meer informatie over de boeken die in de reeks verschijnen, de schrijvers, schrijfsters en auteurs die de boeken hebben geschreven. Bovendien zijn gegevens van de prijs, de uitgave en bestelmogelijkheden van de boeken opgenomen.

A Little History Books review, recensie en informatie

Welke boeken verschijnen er in de reeks A Little History van Yale University Press? Wie is de auteur van het boek? Wat is de inhoud van de Little Histories geschiedenisboeken?

Nieuwe boeken in de reeks A Little History

De reeks A Little History wordt sinds enige tijd uitgeven door Yale University Press. Hieronder is het overzicht te vinden van de nieuwe boeken die in deze Engelstalige reeks verschijnen, ingedeeld op de datum van de uitgave.

Jamie Woodward A Little History of the Earth reviewJamie Woodward – A Little History of the Earth
geologische geschiedenis van de aarde
verschijnt: 9 december 2025
Where has our planet come from, and what lies beneath its surface? How have we come to understand its past and present environments, and what does its future look like? Thanks to scientists who study its rocks, fossils, and landscapes, we know that Earth history spans over four and a half billion years. But there is still much more to discover…lees verder >

William Bynum A Little History of Science reviewWilliam Bynum – A Little History of Science
geschiedenis van de wetenschap
verschijnt: 13 mei 2025
Science is key to understanding the infinite distances of space, the tiniest living organisms body and the history of our planet. From Hippocrates and Aristotle to Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking, men and women have asked how things work, and through experiments have made earth-shattering discoveries…lees verder >

Snezana Lawrence A Little History of Mathematics reviewSnezana Lawrence – A Little History of Mathematics
geschiedenis van de wiskunde
verschijnt: 13 mei 2025
In this Little History, Snezana Lawrence traces the fascinating history of mathematics, from the Egyptians and Babylonians to Renaissance masters and enigma codebreakers. Like literature, music, or philosophy, mathematics has a rich history of breakthroughs, creativity and experimentation. And its story is a global one…lees verder >

Robert Philip A Little History of Music reviewRobert Philip – A Little History of Music
muziekgeschiedenis
Covering a remarkable range, including Indian raga, Javanese gamelan, medieval chant, jazz and K-pop, this Little History celebrates the wonder of music, and why it is treasured across the world. Within its pages, readers will find familiar composers and musicians, and will be introduced to a host of exciting new discoveries…lees verder >

Bijpassende boeken en informatie

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Biografie, Slavernij

Angela F. Murphy – Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie review, recensie en informatie boek over de koning van Underground Railroad. Op 28 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press in de reeks Black Lives de biografie van abolitionist Jermain Wesley Loguen. Het boek is geschreven door Angela F. Murphy. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie review en recensie

  • “For too long, Loguen’s incredible activism, courage, and contributions to Black freedom have been understudied. For his life, we owe Loguen a great debt. For Angela Murphy’s painstaking scholarship, we owe deep gratitude.” (Kellie Carter Jackson)
  • “Angela F. Murphy, author of the definitive study of the ‘Jerry Rescue,’ has written a superb biography of a leader of that struggle, the Reverend Jermain Loguen, himself a fugitive slave from middle Tennessee.” (R.J.M. Blackett)
  • “Murphy shines a brilliant spotlight on a vital but underappreciated abolitionist. This is the definitive account of a defiant fugitive who sought, for himself and others, a land for the free and homes for the brave.” (W. Caleb McDaniel)

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie

Jermain Wesley Loguen

Defiant Fugitive

  • Auteur: Angela F. Murphy (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: biografie
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Reeks: Black Lives
  • Verschijnt: 28 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 312 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 30,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de biografie van Jermain Wesley Loguen

A gripping biography of a man who escaped slavery to become an influential abolitionist, famously known as the King of the Underground Railroad.

Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813–1872) was a fugitive from slavery, an abolitionist, and a minister, teacher, and political activist. He worked alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and his home in Syracuse, New York, was among the most publicized Underground Railroad stations in the northern states. Loguen’s political commitments in the years before the Civil War were carried out at great personal risk, for he had liberated himself from slavery in Tennessee and was in constant danger of being captured and reenslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law. Defiantly, however, he refused to purchase his own freedom, an act that he believed would have legitimized the rights of slaveholders. In addition to aiding fellow fugitives from slavery, Loguen worked tirelessly to promote Black equality and uplift throughout upstate New York and Canada. After Emancipation, he extended his work to aid freedpeople in the South and to advocate for Black equality on a national scale.

In this engaging study, Angela F. Murphy follows Loguen from his early years through his transformation into one of the brightest stars in the constellation of abolitionists and reformers in New York.

Angela F. Murphy is a professor in the Department of History at Texas State University. She is the author of The Jerry Rescue: The Fugitive Slave Law, Northern Rights, and the American Sectional Crisis. She lives in Wimberley, Texas.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, Duitse filosoof

Peter E. Gordon – Walter Benjamin biography

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography review and information book about the Jewish-German culture philosopher and writer. Yale University Press will publish the new book in the Jewish Lives series on Walter Benjamin, The Pearl Diver, February 24, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography review

  • “By reading Benjamin’s own texts against the grain of the hagiography that has come to surround him, Peter Gordon unwinds the myths, and in the most learned and informed fashion, gives us back the human being.” (Susan Buck-Morss, CUNY Graduate Center and Cornell University)

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography

Walter Benjamin

The Pearl Diver

  • Author: Peter E. Gordon (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: February 24, 2026
  • Length: 224 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 28.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the Walter Benjamin biography

An accessible and authoritative biography of Walter Benjamin that guides the reader through the complexity of his intellectual legacy and the turbulence of his time.

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the twentieth century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, he developed a unique style of criticism—his friend Hannah Arendt called it pearl-diving—that sought out fragments of redemption in the ruins of bourgeois civilization.

Award-winning author Peter E. Gordon tells Benjamin’s story in a vivid and poetic style, inviting the reader to look beyond the image of Benjamin as a tragic figure of German-Jewish history and portraying him as a complex personality of unique and multifaceted gifts. Tracing Benjamin’s life from his Berlin childhood to his Parisian exile, through the romanticism of the youth movements and the conflicts over modernism and Marxism, Gordon brings Benjamin to life.

Peter E. Gordon teaches social theory and philosophy at Harvard University. His books include Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization and A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

Matching books

Biografie, Filosofie, Filosoof

Anthony Gottlieb – Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie

Anthony Gottlieb Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie recensie, review en informatie over de inhoud van het boek over de filosoof. Op 21 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press in de reeks Jewish Lives de biografie van de Oostenrijks-Britse filosoof Ludwig Wittgenstein. Het boek is geschreven door Anthony Gottlieb . Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Anthony Gottlieb Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie recensie en review

  • “With philosophical sophistication and writerly grace, Anthony Gottlieb crafts a narrative rich with historical and intellectual detail and subtlety. But though the vistas can be broad, the result is an intimate portrait of a thinker who redefined the boundaries of philosophy.” (Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York University)
  • “The outline of Wittgenstein’s life is well known. But he remains enigmatic, and in this book Anthony Gottlieb casts valuable new light on the role of his family, and of his wider intellectual and musical environment, in fashioning the strange and contradictory genius he became.” (Simon Blackburn)

Anthony Gottlieb Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes

  • Auteur: Anthony Gottlieb (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: biografie van de Oostenrijks-Britse filosoof
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Reeks: Jewish Lives
  • Verschijnt: 21 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 232 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 28,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie van Anthony Gottlieb

The first biography in more than three decades of the Austrian-born thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

According to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), philosophy is a “battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.” This audacious idea changed the way many of its practitioners saw their subject. In the first biography of Wittgenstein in more than three decades, Anthony Gottlieb evaluates this revolutionary idea, explaining the evolution of Wittgenstein’s thought and his place in the history of philosophy.

Wittgenstein was born into an immensely rich Viennese family but yearned to live a simple life, and he gave away his inheritance. After studying with Bertrand Russell in Cambridge, he wrote his famous Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus while serving in World War I. He then took several positions as a primary-school teacher in rural Austria before returning as a fellow to Cambridge, where a cultlike following developed around him. Wittgenstein worked not only as a philosopher and schoolteacher, but also as an aeronautical engineer in Manchester and as an architect in Vienna.

Gottlieb’s meticulously researched book traces the itinerant and troubled life of Wittgenstein, the development of his influential ideas, and the Viennese intellectual milieu and family background that shaped him.

Anthony Gottlieb is born in 1956. He is an author, book critic, and former executive editor of The Economist. He is the author of The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance and The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, Joden

Jenna Weissman Joselit – Mordecai M. Kaplan biography

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan biography review and information book about the rabbi, writer, teacher, and thinker.Yale University Press will publish the new book in the Jewish Lives series on Mordecai M. Kaplan, Restless Soul, March 17, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan biography review

  • “To capture Mordecai Kaplan’s long and astonishingly productive life takes skill and discernment and a deep understanding of American Jewish life. All these qualities are on display is Joselit’s wonderful volume. She has done justice to a remarkable man.” (Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided Heart)

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan Biography

Mordecai M. Kaplan

Restless Soul

  • Author: Jenna Weissman Joselit (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 32.50
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the Mardecai M. Kaplan biography

An engaging biography that goes behind the myths to reveal the complex life of a transformative figure in modern American Judaism.

Rabbi, writer, teacher, and thinker, Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881–1983) was one of the leading Jewish personalities of twentieth-century America. Founder of the Reconstructionist movement, he was a maverick who reshaped religious faith and practice, generating controversy at every turn. Known for his relentless energy and imagination, Kaplan redefined Jewish identity, emphasizing reason over superstition, and intellectual discovery over passive inheritance. He introduced new rituals, reevaluated the role of tradition, and advocated for a Judaism that evolved with the times and fostered inclusive community.

Drawn extensively from Kaplan’s private diaries and correspondence with family and close friends, Jenna Weissman Joselit’s intimate portrait of this influential and iconoclastic thinker sheds new light on the meaning of American Judaism, identity, the limits of belonging, and the role of faith in modern society.

Jenna Weissman Joselit is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and professor of history at the George Washington University. The author, most recently, of Set in Stone: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments, she lives in New York.

Matching books

Amerikaanse muziek, Biografie, Muziek

Daniel Okrent – Stephen Sondheim biography

Daniel Okrent Stephen Sondheim biography review and information book about the Jewish-American composer and songwriter. Yale University Press will publish the new book in the Jewish Lives series on Stephen Sondheim, Art Isn’t Easy, March 17, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Daniel Okrent Stephen Sondheim biography review

  • “An intricate, elegant tour through the life and psyche of an uneasy genius. Okrent’s book is stuffed with new matter and fascinating insights even for specialists like me who’ve been immersed in Sondheim’s biography and art for decades.” (Laurie Winer, author of Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical)
  • “In this compact, densely pleasurable life of Stephen Sondheim, Daniel Okrent has achieved the remarkable feat of bringing to fresh life an endlessly chronicled subject in a compellingly readable and authoritative way.” (James Kaplan, author of Irving Berlin)

Daniel Okrent Stephen Sondheim biography

Stephen Sondheim

Art Isn’t Easy

  • Author: Daniel Okrent (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 35.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the Stephen Sondheim biography

A revelatory look at the complex inner world of one of the twentieth century’s most beloved theatrical composers.

Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) was a towering figure in American musical theater. Celebrated for his iconic Broadway shows such as Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, his accolades include eight Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. In this intimate biography, Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing and his parents’ divorce, his acquaintance with Oscar Hammerstein II and subsequent discovery of musical theater, and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer.

Okrent shines new light on Sondheim’s tormented emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on the artist’s intimate correspondence with such notable figures as Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents; exclusive interviews with his close friends and collaborators, including James Lapine and John Weidman; and Sondheim’s own oral history, which remained closed until his death. As Okrent explores the ways Sondheim’s music and lyrics express the inner man, he reveals a life that was defined by two parallel arcs: the movement from alienation to connection, and from ambivalence to resolution.

Daniel Okrent had careers as a book and magazine editor and was the first public editor of the New York Times. He is the prize-winning author of six books, including The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. He lives in New York City and on Cape Cod.

Matching books

Natuur, Natuurboeken, Natuurhistorie, Plantenboek

Rob DeSalle – Cannabis

Rob DeSalle Cannabis review and information book about the history and nature of the plant. Yale University Press will publish the new Rob DeSalle book on Cannabis, A Natural History, November 18, 2025. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Rob DeSalle Cannabis review

  • “Rob DeSalle takes an object that is engaging and familiar and uses it to teach about biodiversity, philosophy, culture, and the evolution of life on earth. From trichomes to terpenes, he uses common experience to explain complex topics, making science not only accessible but also personally relevant. You will gain key insights into the biology of cannabis—how it survives, why it impacts human behavior, and how its natural history integrates with the larger story of plants and people.” (Chelsea D. Specht, Cornell University)
  • “Rob DeSalle has compiled a wealth of information about cannabis, a plant that perpetually fascinates. Cannabis is a comprehensive and enthralling survey of its natural, cultural, medicinal, legal, and illegal histories.” (Monique McHenry, University of Vermont)
  • “Cannabis is not only erudite but also a magnificent read. As a botanist, I certainly learned a lot! Truly interesting and enjoyable.” (Dennis Stevenson, New York Botanical Garden)

Rob DeSalle Cannabis

Cannabis

A Natural History

  • Author: Rob DeSalle (United States)
  • Book type: natural history book
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Released: November 17, 2025
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 32.50
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the book on cannabis by Rob DeSalle

The definitive story of cannabis, from its evolution and biological quirks to its role in human history.

In this entertaining natural history, Rob DeSalle provides a glimpse into the biological world through the lens of the marijuana plant. A close relative of hops with a surprising place in the botanical tree of life, cannabis has a unique life cycle, has evolved pathways for over four hundred compounds, and makes one thousand or so different chemicals that are stored in its tissues—some of which are the basis of its famed psychoactive properties.

With his scientist’s perspective on this well-known and controversial plant, DeSalle considers taxonomy, systematics, evolution, human physiology and neurobiology, and cultural issues. He discusses the plant’s complicated reproductive strategies; considers ancient arthropod-cannabis associations from South Asia; and offers a nuanced cultural history that extends from the first evidence of smoking cannabis more than two thousand years ago to the current debates over legalization. Engaging and extensively researched, with illustrations by Patricia J. Wynne, this is a vital resource for cannabis enthusiasts and anyone curious about the science behind this infamous “weed.”

Rob DeSalle is a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and a professor at the museum’s Richard Gilder Graduate School. He is author or coauthor of many books, including A Natural History of Beer and Welcome to the Microbiome. He lives in New York City.

Matching books

Amerikaanse Schrijvers, Biografie

Steven J. Zipperstein – Philip Roth biografie

Steven J. Zipperstein Philip Roth biografie recensie, review en informatie over de inhoud van het boek over de Amerikaanse schrijver. Op 14 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press in de reeks Jewish Lives de nieuwe Philip Roth biografie. Het boek is geschreven door Steven J. Zipperstein. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Steven J. Zipperstein Philip Roth biografie recensie en review

  • “Steven Zipperstein’s appreciation of Philip Roth is literary biography at its best. Acute and original judgments of Roth’s written worlds come embraided with revelatory portrayals of the worlds Roth inhabited, scrutinized, and provoked, and of Roth himself, solemn and hilarious, voraciously curious, a boundless sensual spirit riven by his craft.” (Sean Wilentz)
  • “This is one of the fairest and finest literary biographies I have read, with the emphasis on literary. Zipperstein does Philip Roth and his life’s work more than justice. He has produced a book that is a work of literature itself. Not every writer is what Roth called (and was called) ‘a writer’s writer.’ And not every scribe who undertakes to write a major life is truly a writer’s biographer. Zipperstein is one.” (Judith Thurman)

Steven J. Zipperstein Philip Roth

Philip Roth

Strung by Life

  • Auteur: Steven J. Zipperstein (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: biografie
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Reeks: Jewish Lives
  • Verschijnt: 14 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 368 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 28,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de biografie van Philip Roth door Steven J. Zipperstein

A landmark biography of one of our most prominent chroniclers of American life.

In this groundbreaking literary biography, Steven J. Zipperstein captures the complex life and astonishing work of Philip Roth (1933–2018), one of America’s most celebrated writers. Born in Newark, New Jersey—where his short stories and books were often set—Roth wrote with ambition and awareness of what was required to produce great literature. No writer was more dedicated to his craft, even as he was rubbing shoulders with the Kennedys and engaging in a spate of famous and infamous romances. And yet, as much as Roth wrote about sex and self, he viewed himself as socially withdrawn, living much like an “unchaste monk” (his words).

Zipperstein explores the unprecedented range of Roth’s work—from “Goodbye, Columbus” and Portnoy’s Complaint to the Pulitzer Prize–winning American Pastoral and The Plot Against America. Drawing on extensive archival materials and over one hundred interviews, including conversations with Roth about his life and work, Zipperstein provides an intimate and insightful look at one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers, placing his work in the context of his obsessions, as well as American Jewishness, freedom, and sexuality.

Steven J. Zipperstein is born in 1950. He is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. He is the author or editor of ten books, including Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing and Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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Geschiedenisboeken, Mythologie

Matthias Egeler – Elves and Fairies

Matthias Engeler Elves and Fairies review, recensie en informatie boek met een korte geschiedenis van elfen, feeën en de andere wereld. Op 14 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press de Engelse vertaling van Elfen und Feen, geschreven door Matthias Egeler, de professor oude Noordse literatuur en kultuur van de Goethe Universiteit in Frankfurt am Main. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Matthias Egeler Elves and Fairies review en recensie

  • “A genuinely magical book, even though it is also hardheaded and profoundly scholarly. We begin in the magic of a meadow in Iceland full of flowers and warmth, and travel by way of Scotland and Germany to a wide range of fairy lands of the imagination. Gloriously attentive to the details of landscape and story, this book maps a rich landscape of the playful and the deadly. An outstanding contribution.” (Diane Purkiss, author of Fairies and Fairy Stories)
  • “Beginning in Iceland and Ireland, this is a splendid and masterful study of the different kinds of elves and fairies found in European culture – a model of clarity, absorbing and enriching.” (Séamus Mac Mathúna, Emeritus Professor of Irish and Celtic Studies, Ulster University)
  • “Clap if you believe in fairies? Certainly, and elves too, if they are like the ones so lovingly explained in Matthias Egeler’s book.” (Alberto Manguel, author of Fabulous Monsters)

Matthias Egeler Elves and Fairies

Elves and Fairies

A Short History of the Otherworld

  • Auteur: Matthias Egeler (Duitsland)
  • Soort boek: elfen en feeën boek
  • Origineel: Elfen und Feen (2024)
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Verschijnt: 14 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 256 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 26.00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek van Matthias Egeler over elfen en feeën

An enchanting history of the otherworld of elves and fairies, from the nature spirits of Iceland and Ireland to Avalon and Middle Earth.

Originating in Norse and Celtic mythologies, elves and fairies are a firmly established part of Western popular culture. Since the days of the Vikings and Arthurian legend, these sprites have undergone huge transformations. From J. R. R. Tolkien’s warlike elves, based on medieval legend, to little flower fairies whose charms even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle succumbed to, they permeate European art and culture.

In this engaging cultural history, Matthias Egeler explores these mythical creatures of Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and England, and their continental European cousins. Egeler goes on a journey through enchanted landscapes and literary worlds. He describes both their friendly and their dangerous, even deadly, sides. We encounter them in the legends of King Arthur’s round table and in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the terrible era of the witch trials, in magic’s peaceful conquest of Victorian bourgeois salons, in the child-friendly form of Peter Pan, and even as helpers in the contemporary fight against environmental destruction.

Matthias Egeler was born in 1980. He is professor of Old Norse literature and culture at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, after years at Oxford, Cambridge, and Munich. His research focuses on Old Norse literary, cultural, and religious history; the literary and religious history of medieval Ireland; and the world of Icelandic folk tales.

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