Author Walter Dean Myers describes his childhood in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, discussing his loving stepmother, his problems in school, his reasons for leaving home, and his beginnings as a writer.

Presents a literary memoir of poems, essays, and intimate family photos that reflect on the author's complicated relationship with his mother and his disadvantaged childhood on a Native American reservation.

"This long-awaited biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master. Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remains curiously absent from the American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals...

David is a widowed science fiction writer who adopts Dennis, a young boy who claims to be from the Red Planet. David believes the child acts strangely in order to process the difficulty he has had in his young life, but soon both David and his sister, Liz, begin to wonder if the boy might be telling the truth.

The author recalls his carefree life in a small midwestern town at the close of World War I, and his adventures with his pet raccoon.

A biography of the celebrated steamboat pilot, journalist, gold prospector, and novelist focuses on Mark Twain's early days, from his childhood in Missouri to his adventures as a young man in the Wild West.