The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography (4th ed.) by
The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography contains details of the lives of over 2100 women from all periods, cultures and walks of life - from queens to TV chefs, engineers to stand up comics, pilots to poisoners. With subsections for further reading, comprehensive subject index and a bibliographical survey, this dictionary of women's biography is an invaluable reference source.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History by
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History captures the experiences of women throughout world history. Includes over 650 biographies of influential women.
From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women, an Encyclopedia of Leader, Causes and Issues (4th ed.) by
From Suffrage to the Senate is a comprehensive and valuable compendium of biographies of leading women in U.S. politics, past and present, and an examination of the wide range of women's movements.
A Biographical Dictionary of Women Healers : midwives, nurses, and physicians by
This book summarizes the lives of 240 significant or representative women who have engaged in the core professions of mid-wifery, nursing, and medicine, and whose careers were primarily spent in the United States and Canada, from colonial times to the present.
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers [Two Volumes] by
African American women writers published extensively during the Harlem Renaissance and have been extraordinarily prolific since the 1970s. This book surveys the world of African American women writers. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on more than 150 novelists, poets, playwrights, short fiction writers, autobiographers, essayists, and influential scholars. The Encyclopedia covers established contemporary authors such as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor, along with a range of neglected and emerging figures. Each entry is written by an expert contributor.
American Women Writers (3rd ed.) by
Profiles more than 190 women, among them poets, essayists, journalists, editors, novelists, memoirists, and numerous other types of writers.
Concise Dictionary of Women Artists by
This book includes some 200 complete entries from the award-winning Dictionary of Women Artists, as well as a selection of introductory essays from the main volume.
A to Z of American Indian Women by
Profiles of 152 American Indian women who have had an impact on American Indian society and the world at large. This volume dispels popular myths and introduces the reader to numerous women whose stories have often remained untold until now.
American Women in the Performing Arts (2nd ed.) by
Includes more than 150 entries profiling film, stage, and television actresses; dancers; musicians; opera stars; and performance artists. Each entry emphasizes the woman's achievements and contributions as an artist.
Gay and Lesbian Biography by
Now researchers have a one-stop source for information about notable gays and lesbians from all cultures, time periods and occupations. Gay and Lesbian Biography provides comprehensive profiles on approximately 275 prominent gays and lesbians. This first-of-its-kind resource covers famous names as well as many lesser-known individuals not covered elsewhere. Entries were selected and prepared with the guidance of a six-member advisory board made up of prominent members of the gay and lesbian community. Profiles include: -- An assessment of the person's role and importance in the gay and lesbian community -- A list of references cited in the essay -- A photograph of the subject (when available) Also includes a general subject index, a list of contributors and nationality and occupation indexes.
How do autobiography and memoir differ from each other?
Each is written by an author about their own life, but autobiography differs from memoir in that autobiography focuses upon the self and memoir focuses more on notable people and events that the author has encountered. However, the terms are often used interchangeably.
Becoming by
"An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States. When she was a little girl, Michelle Robinson's world was the South Side of Chicago, where she and her brother, Craig, shared a bedroom in their family's upstairs apartment and played catch in the park, and where her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, raised her to be outspoken and unafraid. But life soon took her much further afield, from the halls of Princeton, where she learned for the first time what if felt like to be the only black woman in a room, to the glassy office tower where she worked as a high-powered corporate lawyer--and where, one summer morning, a law student named Barack Obama appeared in her office and upended all her carefully made plans. Here, for the first time, Michelle Obama describes the early years of her marriage as she struggles to balance her work and family with her husband's fast-moving political career. She takes us inside their private debate over whether he should make a run for the presidency and her subsequent role as a popular but oft-criticized figure during his campaign. Narrating with grace, good humor, and uncommon candor, she provides a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of her family's history-making launch into the global limelight as well as their life inside the White House over eight momentous years--as she comes to know her country and her country comes to know her. [This book] takes us through modest Iowa kitchens and ballrooms at Buckingham Palace, through moments of heart-stopping grief and profound resilience, bringing us deep into the soul of a singular, groundbreaking figure in history as she strives to live authentically, marshaling her personal strength and voice in service of a set of higher ideals. In telling her story with honesty and boldness, she issues a challenge to the rest of us: Who are we and who do we want to become?"--Jacket.
Cures : A gay man's odyssey by
Martin Duberman successfully recreates his painful and solitary but ultimately triumphant struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality. In Cures; A Gay Man's Odyssey, he tells of the anguish of his divided life: a distinguished college professor, a prize-winning historian; and a playwright; by night a lonely and tormented man cruising gay bars for the companionship he truly desired.
Fun Home by
This book takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of Augusten Burroughs and Mary Karr. It's a father-daughter tale perfectly suited to the graphic memoir form. Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned 'fun home,' as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive.--From publisher description.
Gender Queer: A Memoir by
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by
Maya Angelou's beloved best-selling debut memoir of growing up black in the 1930's and 1940's.
Sent by their mother to live with their devout grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age— and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.--Back cover.
Living for Change: An autobiography by
Grace Lee Boggs, Chinese American, middle class, highly educated, the life of an untraditional radical from the end of the thirties, through the cold war, the civil rights era, and the rise of Black Power, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers to the present efforts to rebuild our crumbling urban communities.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * ONE OF TIME'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE * A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness "Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human."--Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen In development as a television series starring and adapted by Greta Lee * One of Time's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year * Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, New Statesman, BuzzFeed, Esquire, The New York Public Library, and Book Riot Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative--and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world. Binding these essays together is Hong's theory of "minor feelings." As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality--when you believe the lies you're told about your own racial identity. Minor feelings are not small, they're dissonant--and in their tension Hong finds the key to the questions that haunt her. With sly humor and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche--and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth. Praise for Minor Feelings "Hong begins her new book of essays with a bang. . . .The essays wander a variegated terrain of memoir, criticism and polemic, oscillating between smooth proclamations of certainty and twitches of self-doubt. . . . Minor Feelings is studded with moments [of] candor and dark humor shot through with glittering self-awareness."--The New York Times "Hong uses her own experiences as a jumping off point to examine race and emotion in the United States."--Newsweek "Powerful . . . [Hong] brings together memoiristic personal essay and reflection, historical accounts and modern reporting, and other works of art and writing, in order to amplify a multitude of voices and capture Asian America as a collection of contradictions. She does so with sharp wit and radical transparency."--Salon
My Beloved World by
"An instant American icon--the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court--tells the story of her life before becoming a judge in an inspiring, surprisingly personal memoir. With startling candor and intimacy, Sonia Sotomayor recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a progress that is testament to her extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself. She writes of her precarious childhood and the refuge she took with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother. She describes her resolve as a young girl to become a lawyer, and how she made this dream become reality: valedictorian of her high school class, summa cum laude at Princeton, Yale Law, prosecutor in the Manhattan D.A.'s office, private practice, federal district judge before the age of forty. She writes about her deeply valued mentors, about her failed marriage, about her cherished family of friends. Through her still-astonished eyes, America's infinite possibilities are envisioned anew in this ... book"-- Provided by publisher.
When I Was Puerto Rican by
[The author's] story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her warring parents and seven siblings led a life of uproar, but one full of love and tenderness as well. Growing up, Esmeralda learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of the tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby's soul to heaven. But just when Esmeralda seemed to have learned everything, she was taken to New York City, where the rules - and the language - were bewilderingly different. How Esmeralda overcame adversity, won acceptance to New York City's High School of Performing Arts, and then went on to Harvard, where she graduated with highest honors, is a record of a tremendous journey by a truly remarkable woman.-BooksInPrint.
Alice Walker: A Life by
"Born to a sharecropping family in Georgia, Alice Walker thrived in the rich culture of what she called the "agrarian peasantry" to become one of our most important and popular writers. Evelyn C. White charts Walker's childhood, marked by an incident at eight that left her blinded in her right eye and with disfiguring scar tissue and that prompted her, out of a sense of "ugliness," to probe human suffering through her poems and stories. In this biography, we learn of Walker's activism in the 1960s freedom movement, and her leadership in the debate on black women's art, politics, and sexuality. The Color Purple garnered Walker the Pulitzer Prize in fiction - the first awarded to a black woman writer. Drawing on papers, letters, journals, and extensive interviews with Walker, her family, friends, colleagues, and leading American cultural figures including Gloria Steinem, Quincy Jones, and Oprah Winfrey, White assesses one of the most influential writers of our time."--Jacket.
Fannie Lou Hamer : America's freedom fighting woman by
A remarkable life that spanned fifty-nine tumultuous years in the history of American race relations--advocating civil rights, economic justice, and interracial cooperation. Hamer shared the platform with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
Frida, a biography of Frida Kahlo by
An in-depth biography of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo details her haunting and original painting style, her turbulent marriage to muralist Diego Rivera, her association with communism, and her love of Mexican culture and folklore.
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea : One refugee's incredible story of love, loss, and survival by
Adrift in a frigid sea, no land in sight-just debris from the ship's wreckage and floating corpses all around-nineteen-year-old Doaa Al Zamel floats with a small inflatable water ring around her waist and clutches two children, barely toddlers, to her body. The children had been thrust into Doaa's arms by their drowning relatives, all refugees who boarded a dangerously overcrowded ship bound for Sweden and a new life. For days, Doaa floats, prays, and sings to the babies in her arms. She must stay alive for these children. She must not lose hope. Doaa Al Zamel was once an average Syrian girl growing up in a crowded house in a bustling city near the Jordanian border. But in 2011, her life was upended. Inspired by the events of the Arab Spring, Syrians began to stand up against their own oppressive regime. When the army was sent to take control of Doaa's hometown, strict curfews, power outages, water shortages, air raids, and violence disrupted everyday life. After Doaa's father's barbershop was destroyed and rumors of women being abducted spread through the community, her family decided to leave Syria for Egypt, where they hoped to stay in peace until they could return home. Only months after their arrival, the Egyptian government was overthrown and the environment turned hostile for refugees. In the midst of this chaos, Doaa falls in love with a young opposition fighter who proposes marriage and convinces her to flee to the promise of safety and a better future in Europe. Terrified and unable to swim, Doaa and her young fiance hand their life savings to smugglers and board a dilapidated fishing vessel with five hundred other refugees, including a hundred children. After four horrifying days at sea, another ship, filled with angry men shouting insults, rams into Doaa's boat, sinking it and leaving the passengers to drown. That is where Doaa's struggle for survival really begins.
James Baldwin: Living in Fire by
The personal and political life of the great American writer who refused to shy away from the fire. As a lifelong radical, anti-imperialist, black queer advocate, feminist and pro-Palestinian, the life and writing of James Baldwin (1924-1987) has been an inspiration to generations.
Marie Curie by
In her intensely researched, inventively drawn exploration of Marie Curie's life, artist Alice Milani follows the celebrated Polish scientist from Curie's time as a struggling governess to her years in France making breakthrough discoveries. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. With skill and care, Milani traces Curie's flight from Russia-controlled Poland, her romance with fellow scientist Pierre Curie, and Marie and Pierre's stunning discoveries of the elements radium and polonium. Throughout this distinctive graphic work, Curie defies doubt and double standards to make an enduring impact on the scientific world.
Rachel Carson: A Biography by
Provides a readable and up-to-date biography of Rachel Carson, a writer and scientist who greatly influenced the modern environmental movement. Few people have had as great an impact on the modern environmental movement as has the great writer and scientist Rachel Carson. This readable and up-to-date biography traces the famous environmentalist's development as a writer from earliest childhood through the publication of her best-known work Silent Spring (1962). Although Carson is now remembered almost exclusively for Silent Spring , which exposed the dangers of pesticides, this book was preceded by three best-sellers about the ocean environment: Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Edge of the Sea (1955), and The Sea Around Us (1951) which catapulted her to fame. In Rachel Carson: A Biography , Carson emerges as a talented scientist and exceptional writer who was able to share her sense of wonder about nature with both scientists and the general public. Carson's great love of both writing and nature emerged at a young age and enabled her to overcome numerous obstacles in her life. She made a critical decision to switch her major in college from English to biology, she suffered financial problems during the Depression, and family and work responsibilities left her little time to write. She struggled for years to become a writer, working in relative obscurity for 15 years at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service writing pamphlets and brochures. She also endured harsh criticism of Silent Spring toward the end of her life while terribly ill. This biography shows how Carson overcame these difficulties and persevered to become one of the most influential writers of the last half of the 20th century. Her legacy as a champion of nature continues 50 years after her death.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg : A life in American history by
This book offers both a biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, only the second-ever woman appointed to the Supreme Court, and a historical analysis of her impact.
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A true story of slavery and restitution in America by
"In Sweet Taste of Liberty, W. Caleb McDaniel focuses on the experience of a freed slave who was sold back into slavery, eventually freed again, and who then sued the man who had sold her back into bondage. Henrietta Wood was born into slavery, but in 1848, she was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed. In 1855, however, a wealthy Kentucky businessman named Zebulon Ward, who colluded with Wood's employer, abducted Wood and sold her back into bondage. In the years that followed before and during the Civil War, she gave birth to a son and was forced to march to Texas. She obtained her freedom a second time after the war and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for $20,000 in damages--now known as reparations. Astonishingly, after ten years of litigation, Henrietta Wood won her case. In 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500 and the decision stuck on appeal. While nowhere close to the amount she had demanded, this may be the largest amount of money ever awarded by an American court in restitution for slavery. Wood went on to live until 1912"-- Provided by publisher.
Life Histories of African Women by
Life histories of seven African women from different geographical areas and from varying cultural backgrounds. Many of these women's lives were affected by the European colonial presence in Africa, yet others reflect the influence of Islam.
Modern HERstory : Stories of women and nonbinary people rewriting history by
An inspiring and radical celebration of 70 women, girls, and gender nonbinary folks who have changed--and are still changing--the world, from the Civil Rights Movement and Stonewall riots through today. Inspiring a radical and inclusive approach to history, Modern HERstory profiles and salutes 70 contemporary champions of progressive social change. Despite making huge contributions to the social change movements of the last century and today, all of these trailblazers come from backgrounds and communities that are traditionally overlooked and under-celebrated- not just women, but people of color, queer people, trans people, Muslims, and young people. Authored by rising star activist Blair Imani, Modern HERstory tells the important stories of these leaders and their movements in an easy-to-follow format appropriate for all ages, granting them the visibility and acknowledgment they deserve, and educating readers about the people changing the world right here and right now--and inspiring them to do the same.
The Shared Heart : Portraits and stories celebrating lesbian, gay, and bisexual young people by
With candor and sensitivity, thirty-nine young people write frankly about their own homosexuality. Told with honesty and courage, their words express the fundamental need all people share for acceptance and respect. Published in collaboration with the adult division of William Morrow.
Soldier Girls: The battles of three women at home and at war by
Groundbreaking account of three women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and how their military service affected their friendship, their personal lives, and their families.
Women and Medicine by
Biographical chapters look at the lives and accomplishments of Elizabeth Blackwell, Janet Travell, Mary Putnam Jacobi, Rosalyn Yalow, and Marie Curie, as well as numerous other pioneers.
Women in Microbiology by
Also available online.
Some of the names are familiar and some are lesser known, but all of the stories arouse a sense of excitement, driven by tales of new, important scientific insights, stories of overcoming adversity and breaking boundaries, and the inclusion of personal tips and advice from successful careers.
Wonder Women: 25 innovators, inventors, and trailblazers who changed history by
Stories of the brilliant, brainy, and totally rad women in history who broke barriers as scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors. Plus, interviews with real-life women in STEM careers, an extensive bibliography,and a guide to women-centric science and technology organizations.