Books by John Leonard
The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind
by John Leonard, The New York Times
The new standard in reference from the nation's leading newspaper:
A thorough, authoritative, easy-to-use guide offering deeper coverage on a broad range of essential subjects.
Whether you are researching the history of the world, interested in learning more about an obscure medical procedure, exploring environmental trends, studying a great work of literature, looking for tips on how to improve your crossword puzzle skills, or just trying to gain a deeper understanding of the latest current events, this book is for you. An indispensable resource for every home, office, dorm room, and library, The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge includes insightful sidebars by Times writers, and covers major categories including art, astronomy, business, sports, history, medicine, philosophy, photography, biology, film, and much more!
Years in the making, this one volume is designed to offer more information than any other book on the most popular subjects as well as providing easy-to-access data vital for everyday living. It is the only comprehensive reference book to include authoritative, engaging in-depth essays from experts in almost every field of endeavor, with innovative cross-referencing to allow for to even greater understanding.
Featuring:
- Biographical dictionary of nearly one thousand of the most important people of every field
- Writers Guide to grammar, usage and style
- The United States Constitution
- The most complete sports section of any one-volume reference book
- A thirty-thousand-word history of the world
- Crossword dictionary
Contributors include:
- Jane Brody on health matters
- Dennis Overbye on the Big Bang
- Linda Greenhouse on the Supreme Court today
- Andrew Revkin on the state of the world's environment
- John Noble Wilford on the oldest human fossil
- Michael Kimmelman on the origins of photography
- Will Shortz on crosswords
- Natalie Angier on war
- Nicholas Wade on how life began
Copies
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The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind
by John Leonard, The New York Times
A COMPLETE REVISION AND THOROUGH UPDATING OF THE ULTIMATE REFERENCE FROM THE NEWSPAPER OF RECORD.
A comprehensive guide offering insight and clarity on a broad range of even more essential subjects.
Whether you are researching the history of Western art, investigating an obscure medical test, following current environmental trends, studying Shakespeare, brushing up on your crossword and Sudoku skills, or simply looking for a deeper understanding of the world, this book is for you. An indispensable resource for every home, office, dorm room, and library, this new edition of The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge offers in-depth explorations of art, astronomy, biology, business, economics, the environment, film, geography, history, the Internet, literature, mathematics, music, mythology, philosophy, photography, sports, theater, film, and many other subjects.
This one volume is designed to offer more information than any other book on the most important subjects, as well as provide easy-to-access data critical to everyday life. It is the only universal reference book to include authoritative and engaging essays from New York Times experts in almost every field of endeavor.
The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge provides information with matchless accuracy and exceptional clarity. This new revised and expanded third edition covers major categories with an emphasis on depth and historical context, providing easy access to data vital for everyday living.
Covering nearly 50 major categories, and providing an immediate grasp of complex topics with charts, sidebars, and maps, the third edition features 50 pages of new material, including new sections on
* Atheism * Digital Media
* Inventions and Discoveries * Endangered Species
* Inflation * Musical Theater
* Book Publishing *Wikileaks
*The Financial Crisis *Nuclear Weapons
*Energy *The Global Food Supply
Every section has been thoroughly updated, making this third edition more useful and comprehensive than ever. It informs, educates, answers, illustrates and clarifies---it's the only one-volume reference book you need.
Copies
No copies available.
These United States: Original Essays by Leading American Writers on Their State Within the Union (Nation Books)
by John Leonard
In 1922, The Nation launched a series of forty-nine articles by a distinguished group of writers—novelists, journalists, educators, social workers, lawyers, unionists, and maverick intellectuals—each of whom was asked to contemplate his or her state of the union. Their essays were collected and published in a volume: These United States: Portrait of America from the 1920s. In 2002 Nation Books set out to create a contemporary portrait of America with the critic John Leonard as editor. Each contributor was asked to write 2,500 words on his or her state in the union. Every state will be represented, as well as New York City, Long Island, and Northern and Southern California. The results of this ambitious project are now being published together for the first time. Taken as a whole these essays form less a symposium than a remarkably evocative crazy-quilt of styles that reveal the many moods, apprehensions, complexities, and contradictions held within these United States. Some of the 115 confirmed contributors include: Charles Bowden, Arizona; Ana Castillo, Illinois; Jim Harrison, Michigan; Luc Sante, New Jersey; Tony Hillerman, New Mexico; Sherman Alexie, Washington; and Annie Proulx, Wyoming.
Copies
No copies available.
These United States: Original Essays by Leading American Writers on Their State Within the Union (Nation Books)
by John Leonard
In 1922, The Nation launched a series of forty-nine articles by a distinguished group of writers -- novelists, journalists, educators, social workers, lawyers, unionists, and maverick intellectuals -- each of whom was asked to contemplate his or her state of the union. Their essays were collected and published in a volume: These United States: Portrait of America from the 1920s. In 2002 Nation Books set out to create a contemporary portrait of America with the critic John Leonard as editor. Each contributor was asked to write 2,500 words on his or her state in the union. Every state will be represented, as well as New York City, Long Island, and Northern and Southern California. The results of this ambitious project are now being published together for the first time. Taken as a whole these essays form less a symposium than a remarkably evocative crazy-quilt of styles that reveal the many moods, apprehensions, complexities, and contradictions held within these United States. Some of the 115 confirmed contributors include: Charles Bowden, Arizona; Ana Castillo, Illinois; Jim Harrison, Michigan; Luc Sante, New Jersey; Tony Hillerman, New Mexico; Sherman Alexie, Washington; and Annie Proulx, Wyoming.
Copies
No copies available.
Reading for My Life: Writings, 1958-2008
by John Leonard
John Leonard was a lion of American letters. A passionate, erudite, and wide-ranging critic, he helped shape the landscape of modern literature. Reading for My Life is a monumental collection of Leonard's most significant writings—spanning five decades—from his earliest columns for the Harvard Crimson to his final essays for the New York Review of Books. Definitive reviews of Doris Lessing, Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, Vladimir Nabokov, and Philip Roth, among others, display Leonard's encyclopedic knowledge of literature and make this book a landmark achievement from one of America's most beloved and influential critics.
Copies
No copies available.
Reading for My Life: Writings, 1958-2008
by John Leonard
Right up until his death in 2008, John Leonard was a lion in American letters. A passionate, erudite, and wide-ranging critic, he helped shape the landscape of modern literature. He reviewed the most celebrated writers of his age—from Kurt Vonnegut and Joan Didion to Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon. He championed Morrison’s work so ardently that she invited him to travel with her to Stockholm when she accepted her Nobel Prize. He also contributed many pieces on television, film, politics, and the media, which continue to surprise and impress with their fervor and prescience.
Reading for My Life is a monumental collection of Leonard’s most significant writings—spanning five decades—from his earliest columns for the Harvard Crimson to his final essays for The New York Review of Books. Here are Leonard’s best writings—many never before published in book form—on the cultural touchstones of a generation, each piece a testament to his sharp wit, fierce intelligence, and lasting love of the arts. Definitive reviews of Doris Lessing, Vladimir Nabokov, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tom Wolfe, Don DeLillo, Milan Kundera, and Philip Roth, among others, display his passion and nearly encyclopedic knowledge of literature in the second half of the twentieth century. His essay on Ed Sullivan and the evolution of television remains a classic. Throughout Leonard’s reviews and essays is a dedicated political spirit, pleading for social justice, advocating for the women’s movement, and forever calling attention to writers whose work challenged and excited him.
With an introduction by E. L. Doctorow and remembrances by Leonard’s friends, family, and colleagues, including Gloria Steinem and Victor Navasky, Reading for My Life stands as a landmark collection from one of America’s most beloved and influential critics.
Copies
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The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001
by John Leonard, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
A disturbing exposé of the American governments hidden agenda, before and after the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A wide range of documents show U.S. officials knew in advance of the "Boeing bombing" plot, yet did nothing. Did the attacks fit in with plans for a more aggressive U.S. foreign policy? Nafeez Ahmed examines the evidence, direct and circumstantial, and lays it before the public in chilling detail: how FBI agents who uncovered the hijacking plot were muzzled, how CIA agents trained Al Qaeda members in terror tactics, how the Bush family profited from its business connections to the Bin Ladens, and from the Afghan war. A "must read" for anyone seeking to understand Americas New War on Terror.
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Lonesome Rangers: Homeless Minds, Promised Lands, Fugitive Cultures
by John Leonard
John Leonard, "the fastest wit in the East" (The New York Times Book Review), is back with the offbeat, wide-ranging style that earned his last book, When the Kissing Had to Stop, a place among the Voice Literary Supplement's "25 Favorites of 1999." Now, with an eye to the social and political experience of writers, Leonard adopts a broad definition of exile.
He addresses Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, where exile manifests itself in solitary bowling, a reflection of a declining sense of community. He considers Salman Rushdie as rock'n'roll Orpheus, who―after ten years in fatwa-enforced exile―bears a striking resemblance to his continually disappearing characters. And Leonard also explores Primo Levi's exile of survival, Bruce Chatwin's self-imposed exile in travel, as well as the work of Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Phillip Roth, Barbara Kingsolver, and Don DeLillo, among others.
As always, Leonard's writing jumps off the page, engaging the reader in what the Washington Post calls his "laugh-out-loud magic with words."
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