"Kurt Vonnegut used to like to say, "Practicing an art form is a way to grow your soul." He would screw up his lips into a prune face after he said this because of how important he believed this idea to be. Pity the Reader is the very embodiment of that idea, a book about writing and life and why the two go together. It includes rare photos and reproductions, Vonnegut's own account in his own words of how he became a writer and why it matters, and...

Presents the letters, essays, and poems of the celebrated American writer and provides running commentaries to help shed light on particular passages and examine the writer's motives and style.

From the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting: a narratively driven, deeply human biography of the 8th century poet, Li Bai--also known as Li Po--one of the most beloved poets ever to emerge from China. With the instincts of a master novelist, Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the life story of Li Bai (701-762), whose poems--shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust...

Profoundly influenced by the Renaissance painters, Hilaire Degas pioneered precision of line and the use of the human form in space within the Impressionist school. A Paris-born pupil of Ingres, Degas produced such masterpieces as Rehearsal of the Ballet and The Cotton Exchange. This unique study of his life and times includes delightful new footage of the Royal Ballet, Birmingham, England.

This is the story of the life and work of Camille Pissarro, the West-Indian born leader of the original Impressionists and the only artist from that school to exhibit at all eight of the exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. A considerable influence on Cezanne and Gauguin at the beginning of their careers, Pissarro's great works include the famous Boulevard Montmartre which hangs today in the National Gallery, London.