From Hank Aaron to King Zog, Mao Tse-Tung to Madonna, Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes features more than 2,000 people from around the world, past and present, in all fields. These short anecdotes provide remarkable insight into the human character. Ranging from the humorous to the tearful, they span classical history, recent politics, modern science and the arts. Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes is a gold mine for anyone who gives speeches, is doing research, or simply likes to browse. As an informal tour of history and human nature at its most entertaining &amp; instructive, this is sure to be a perennial favorite for years to come.

Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes

Fadiman, Clifton

Bernard, André

Literature & Fiction

Little. Brown and Company

A carefully researched volume tells the stories behind more than one hundred famous titles, listing those whose original names greatly vary from the final ones (Gone With the Wind was originally entitled "Pansy") and noting why the changes were made.

Now All We Need Is a Title: Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way

History & Criticism

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

The struggles and inspirations that gave birth to our great writers' most memorable creations. A delightful compendium of wit and information, this book takes us on a casual stroll through literary history as the world's most successful writers sought just the right name, or just the right tone, or just the right prop, for the hero or heroine of their works. How did Nero Wolfe in Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout end up with the name of a Roman emperor? Was Tolstoy's Anna Karenina based on a real person? Why was Hercule Poirot, the great inspector in the mysteries of Agatha Christie, a Belgian rather than a Frenchman? Why was Long John Silver missing a foot? Under what circumstances did J. R. R. Tolkien conceive of a "hobbit"? In this charming collection of anecdotes, we are taken to the very heart of the mystery of literary creation. For as Virginia Woolf once wrote, "If the characters are real the novel will have a chance." 30 line drawings

Madame Bovary, C'est Moi: The Great Characters of Literature and Where They Came From

Essays & Correspondence

W.W.Norton&Company

"An entertaining little book. . . . It is a good thing that writers have to keep struggling for the right title, to judge from Bernard's amusing evidence."--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times André Bernard has researched the stories behind more than one hundred of the most famous titles in the English language to produce a fascinating volume rich in literary anecdote and publishing lore. The Great Gatsby was almost titled Trimalchio in West Egg, while some unknown editor told William L. Shirer, "Please God, don't ask us to publish a book called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." It's a wonderful romp among the literary monuments.Raymond Chandler to Alfred A. Knopf: "I'm trying to think of a good title for you to want me to change."

Reference

Rotten Rejections: The Letters That Publishers Wish They'd Never Sent

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Robson Books Ltd.

Profile, Calgary: The Political and Administrative Structures of the Metropolitan Region of Calgary

Léveillée, Jacques

Lord, Guy

History

Nabu Press

Mabel Elsworth Todd pioneered ideokinesis in the 1920s. Her book, The Thinking Body, described new ways to use all the senses as well as inner feeling and imagination to retrain the body to move with ease and balance. The system became an invaluable tool for generations of dancers, actors, and performance artists, thanks largely to one of its most important teachers, André Bernard (1924-2003). This book presents an introduction to the practice as well as a lengthy interview with Bernard and two meticulously detailed workshop protocols illustrated with 52 photographs and line drawings.

Ideokinesis: A Creative Approach to Human Movement and Body Alignment

Steinmüller, Wolfgang

Stricker, Ursula

North Atlantic Books

This extraordinary collection of rejection letters sent by publishers to writers - many delivered to now famous authors of books considered classics - is sure to entertain and delight readers and give more than a little comfort to struggling authors. Among the gems of editorial misjudgement included in the book are: 'You are welcome to Le Carre - he hasn't got any future.' (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1963); 'It is impossible to sell animal stories...' (Animal Farm, George Orwell, 1945); and 'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias.' (Carrie, Stephen King, early 1970s). In the company of such hallowed names as Thomas Wolfe, Gertrude Stein, Henry James, Joseph Heller and many others, Rotten Rejections makes encouraging reading for all would-be authors.

Robson Books

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Books by Bernard, André