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.

Reading for My Life: Writings, 1958-2008

Literature & Fiction

Leonard, John

Essays & Correspondence

Penguin Publishing Group

Seven Centuries Of Poetry In English

Oxford University Press

Faithful Labourers surveys and evaluates existing criticism of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost, tracing the major debates as they have unfolded over the past three centuries. Eleven chapters split over two volumes consider the key debates in Milton criticism, including discussion of Milton's style, his use of the epic genre, and his references to Satan, God, innocence, the fall, sex, nakedness, and astronomy. Volume one attends to questions of style and genre. The first three chapters examine the longstanding debate about Milton's grand style and the question of whether it forfeits the native resources of English. Early critics saw Milton as the pre-eminent poet of 'apt Numbers' and 'fit quantity', whose verse is 'apt' in the specific sense of achieving harmony between sound and sense; twentieth-century anti-Miltonists faulted Milton for divorcing sound from sense; late twentieth-century theorists have denied the possibility that sound can 'enact' sense. These are extreme changes of critical perception, and yet the story of how they came about has never been told. These chronological chapters explain the roots of these changes and, in doing so, engage with the enduring theoretical question of whether it is possible for sound to enact sense. Volume two considers interpretative issues, and each of the six chapters traces a key debate in the interpretation of Paradise Lost. They engage with such questions as whether Paradise Lost is an epic or an anti-epic, whether Satan runs away with the poem (and whether it is good that he does so), what it means to be innocent (or fallen), and whether Milton's poetry is hostile to women. A final chapter on the universe of Paradise Lost makes the provocative argument that almost every commentator since the middle of the eighteenth century has led readers astray by presenting Milton's universe as the medieval model of Ptolemaic spheres. This assumption, which has fostered the notion that Milton was backward-looking or anti-intellectual, rests upon a misreading of three satirical lines. Milton's earliest critics recognized that he unequivocally embraces the new astronomy of Kepler and Bruno.

Faithful Labourers: A Reception History of Paradise Lost, 1667-1970: Volume I: Style and Genre; Volume II: Interpretative Issues

British & Irish

Faithful Labourers: A Reception History of Paradise Lost, 1667-1970

Oxford University Press, USA

Dub Sub Confidential is a GAA memoir like no other—winner of the Setanta Sports Irish Sports Book of the Year Award. John Leonard was a gifted Gaelic football goalkeeper who had the misfortune to reach his prime at the same time, and in the same county, as one of the all-time greats: Stephen Cluxton. Unless something happened to Clucko, Leonard was always going to be number 2. Of course, it didn't help that he had a problem with drink and drugs . . . Dub Sub Confidential is John Leonard's vivid, witty, and searingly honest account of his life in and out of sport. He was both a committed Dub and a sceptical observer of the goings on in the dressing-room and on the training pitch. He writes about the players and the mentors, and about the oddity of being part of the GAA's biggest circus while never expecting to get on the pitch. And he writes brilliantly about the demons that led him to addiction, his efforts for many years to party hard and train hard, and his eventual breakthrough to sobriety. Dub Sub Confidential is a GAA memoir like no other yet published—a book about how Gaelic games collide with real life. It is also a brilliant read from a remarkable personality.

Dub Sub Confidential: A Goalkeeper's Life With – and Without – the Dubs

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin Uk

The last sixty years have seen tremendous strides in high school education. More young people of all races and backgrounds are graduating from high school, with more credits in tougher courses, than ever before. However, our dropout rate is still too high and far too many graduates are not prepared for college. High school reform for city schools has been particularly challenging where poverty and racism have undermined the high school experience. Educators have relied upon two reform strategies: the curricular strategy focuses on the academic content that is delivered in the classroom, content reformers have adjusted. They also have restructured the high school itself to maximize the impact of the classroom. This book offers an additional strategy, one essential for real change: the cultural reform strategy. Cultural change―a fundamental change in the beliefs, attitudes and expectations of the stakeholders―is difficult to achieve. Yet, without a change in the culture of the high school, curricular and structural reforms will have limited impact on raising student engagement.
The authors illustrate the history of high school reform, and develop a case for the necessity of cultural reform, by taking an intimate look at one very typical urban high school―Dorchester High School in Boston. Dorchester High faced trends, policies, and challenges similar to those of high schools all over the country, so that the lessons learned there should be instructive for urban high schools across America. Gonsalves and Leonard also examine Dorchester High in the context of community partnerships and relationships.

New Hope for Urban High Schools: Cultural Reform, Moral Leadership, and Community Partnership

History

Gonsalves, Lisa

Americas

Praeger

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

The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind

Reference

St.Martin's Press

Private Lives in the Imperial City

Ballantine Books

This pen for hire

DOUBLEDAY

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Books by Leonard, John