Antoine Watteau, one of the most mysterious painters who ever lived, is the inspiration for this delightful investigation of the tangled relationship between art and life. Weaving together historical fact and personal reflections, the influential art critic Jed Perl ...

“When Matisse dies,” Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is.” As a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative artists of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall...

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar–arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots o...

A rollicking, rich portrait of a life. And what a life! By one of today’s greatest living actors, In Spite of Myself is seamlessly written, with stories that make us laugh out loud and that make real the fascinating, complex, exuberant adventure that is the ac...

From acclaimed biographer and cultural historian, author of Balthus and Patron Saints —the first full-scale life of le Corbusier, one of the most influential, admired, and maligned architects of the twentieth century, heralded is a prophet in his lifetime, r...

A compelling and deeply felt exploration and defense of liberalism: what it actually is, why it is relevant today, and how it can help our society chart a forward course. The Future of Liberalism represents the culmination of four decades of thinking and writing a...

From acclaimed biographer Flora Fraser, the brilliant life of Napoleon's favorite sister, with color photos, paintings, and illustrations.   Considered by many in Europe to be the most beautiful woman at the turn of the nineteenth century, Pauline Bonaparte Bor...

It was an epic downfall. In twenty-four seasons pitcher Roger Clemens put together one of the greatest careers baseball has ever seen. Seven Cy Young Awards, two World Series championships, and 354 victories made him a lock for the Hall of Fame. But on December 13, 2...

In his first-ever work of nonfiction, Graham Swift—Booker Prize-winning author of Waterland and Last Orders —gives us a highly personal book: a singular and open-spirited account of a writer’s life.   Here Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to ch...

The seventh volume in Knopf’s critically acclaimed Complete Lyrics series, published in Johnny Mercer’s centennial year, contains the texts to more than 1,200 of his lyrics, several hundred of them published here for the first time. Johnny Mercer’s...

THERE IS NO better way to introduce children to classical music than with Prokofiev’s musical fairy tale of the little boy who, with the help of a bird, outsmarted the big, bad wolf. A new retelling by Janet Schulman follows the basic story, but with a kin...

In these fifteen superb stories, written in a style at once ineffable and immediately recognizable, Toni Cade Bambara gives us compelling portraits of a wide range of unforgettable characters, from sassy children to cunning old men, in scenes shifting between uptown ...

Set in Claybourne, a small town somewhere in the South, THE SALT EATERS is the story of a community of black faith healers who, searching for the healing properties of salt, witness an event that will change their lives forever. From the Trade Paperback edition.

American Jihad is the only popular book  available about the religious experience of Muslims,  both black and white, in America. With over one  billion faithful worldwide, and over six rnillion in  the United States alone, Is...

Fossils are an incredible link to plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. For this reason, fossils such as dinosaur bones have long fascinated kids. This book offers uncomplicated and engaging explanations of what exactly fossils are, how they form, and ...

Thurgood Marshall's extraordinary contribution to civil rights and overcoming racism is more topical than ever, as the national debate on race and the overturning of affirmative action policies make headlines nationwide. Howard Ball, author of eighteen books on the S...

Ruby Oliver, the neurotic, hyperverbal heroine of the The Boyfriend List , The Boy Book , and The Treasure Map of Boys , is back!     Ruby Oliver is in love. Or it would be love, if Noel, her real live boyfriend, would call her back. But Noel seems to ha...

Riveting, funny, heartbreaking, at once raw and lyrical: these journals reveal the complexity of the actor/writer who invented the autobiographical monologue and perfected the form in such celebrated works as Swimming to Cambodia. Here is the first intimate portra...

Polar bears—fierce and majestic—have captivated us for centuries. Feared by explorers, revered by the Inuit, and beloved by zoo goers everywhere, they are a symbol for the harsh beauty and muscular grace of the Arctic. But as global warming threatens the...

IN 1902, WILLIAM HORNADAY handed a map to the famous paleontologist Barnum Brown. It was Hornaday’s hand-drawn directions to a remote area of the Montana Badlands, where he believed amazing dinosaur fossils lay buried. Following the map, Brown dug up a jawbone ...