Plunkett Press: 164 books

In the United States the Cold War shaped our political culture, our institutions, and our national priorities. Abroad, it influenced the destinies of people everywhere. It divided Europe, split Germany, and engulfed the Third World. It led to a feverish arms race and massive sales of military equipment...

“German troops entered [Denmark, a] country of four and a half million persons on April 9, 1940, and three years passed before the purge against Danish Jews was begun. On the night of October 1, 1943, the Nazi boot kicked open doors in rooms largely empty. Only a fraction of the Danish Jews —...

Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild and His Time by Amos Elon (52,000 words and 51 illustrations) In this short biography of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), historian and journalist Amos Elon describes how the founder of the Rothschild dynasty started out by dealing in rare...

Ice Cream Man: 25 Years at Toscanini's in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Gus Rancatore and Helen Epstein (10,200 words) A highly entertaining, idiosyncratic mini-memoir, with recipes, about 25 years of running a gourmet ice cream shop down the street from Harvard and MIT. Gus Rancatore shares...

Born Heinrich Hilgard in Bavaria, Henry Villard (1835-1900) emigrated to the United States at age 18 after a disagreement with his father, penniless, not speaking a word of English and without his parents’ knowledge. Within five years, he had mastered the English language and was covering...

Married to Stefan Zweig by Friderike Zweig (translated from the German by Erna McArthur, with an introduction by Helen Epstein, a chronology of Stefan Zweig's life and a bibliography of works by and about Stefan Zweig in English by Randolph Klawiter; 104,000 words and 22 illustrations) An essential...

Balzac by Stefan Zweig (translated from the German by William and Dorothy Rose, with a chronology of Stefan Zweig's life and a bibliography of works by and about Stefan Zweig in English by Randolph Klawiter; 150,000 words, 22 illustrations) Zweig devoted ten years of research and writing to...

From the Fair by Sholom Aleichem (translated from the Yiddish by Curt Leviant, with an introduction by Curt Leviant; 114,000 words) Sholom Aleichem (1859-1916) began writing his autobiography when he was 49 and was still working on it when he died at age 57. He considered From the Fair his...

Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky by Stefan Zweig (translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul, with a chronology of Stefan Zweig's life and a bibliography of works by and about Stefan Zweig in English by Randolph Klawiter; 77,000 words) In these early 20th century literary essays,...

Camille Claudel, sister of writer Paul Claudel, was a gifted nineteenth-century French sculptor who worked with Auguste Rodin, became his lover, and then left him to gain recognition for herself in the art world. With a strong sense of independence and a firm belief in her own considerable talent,...

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was not only the world’s greatest sculptor, known for such works as The Thinker, The Kiss, The Hand of God, and dozens of others, but also one of the most remarkable personalities of modern times: an artist who outraged contemporaries with his disturbingly unfinished...

The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche by Stefan Zweig (translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul, with a chronology of Stefan Zweig's life and a bibliography of works by and about Stefan Zweig in English by Randolph Klawiter; 82,000 words) Stefan Zweig’s literary...

The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse by Carl Djerassi (129,000 words; 26 illustrations) This unusually wide-ranging memoir, moving from Europe to America, academia to industry, science to art, triumph to tragedy, is the idiosyncratic life story of Carl Djerassi, teenage refugee from...

Tina Packer Builds A Theater by Helen Epstein (30,000 words) Anyone interested in theater should read this small, engaging biography about a woman who founded a regional theater. Tina Packer began as a young actress from Nottingham, England who emigrated to the United States in the early 1970s...