"Miss Bells [translations] are true poetry of a very high order and, with perhaps the single exception of FitzGerald's paraphrase of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, are probably the finest and most truly poetical renderings of any Persian poet ever produced in the English language..." -- Edward G Bro[...]

"Wanda Rutkiewicz was the finest woman alpinist in the world, a charismatic person and a stronger, more accomplished climber than many men. She climbed with twenty expeditions spread over 22 years. But on 12 May 1992 she vanished without trace at 8300 metres while attempting to add Kanchenjunga to t[...]

With "Gertrude," Herman Hesse continues his lifelong exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists--his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the [...]

Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), the distinguished and influential garden designer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, originally trained as an artist but later turned her hand to craftwork, gardening, and plant collecting and breeding. During her career she collaborated with distingui[...]

This incident-packed biography reveals a woman whose achievements and independent spirit were especially remarkable for her times, and who brought the same passion and intensity to her explorations as she did to her rich romantic life.[...]