Open Road: 9207 books

A trove of intimate conversations between Burroughs and Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, David Bowie, and more icons of ’70s New York and beyond. During the 1970s, William Burroughs, author of Junky and Naked Lunch, lived in a loft on the Bowery in New York City’s Lower East Side....

Bosworth’s remarkable look at the life of Diane Arbus, one of the most acclaimed and provocative photographers of her time Diane Arbus became famous for her intimate and unconventional portraits of twins, dwarfs, sideshow performers, eccentrics, and everyday “freaks.” Condemned by some...

An intriguing look inside the mind of the Renaissance genius   Leonardo da Vinci stood on a bridge between medieval thought and the modern mind. In this selection of entries from his dozens of coded notebooks and unpublished manuscripts, his unending curiosity in the universe and deep...

A look into what moved Andy Warhol’s greatest muse Located at 33 Union Square West in the heart of New York City’s pulsing downtown scene, Andy Warhol’s Factory was an artistic anomaly. Not simply a painter’s studio, it was the center of Warhol’s assembly-line production of films,...

In the tradition of Anna Quindlen’s Good Dog. Stay., the iconic star of the Dr. Phibes films shares the heartwarming tale of his mischievous mutt. Actor Vincent Price won acclaim for his performances as a menacing villain in dozens of macabre horror films, such as House of Wax. Less well...

“A fascinating, frank and page-turning memoir about the lifelong love affair of two extraordinary men” (Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City).   The human story at the center of this debate is told in Double Life, a dual memoir by a gay male couple in a fifty-plus year relationship....

An intimate biography of the gay icon whose Tales of the City changed America’s understanding of LGBT culture during the 1970s and ’80s. Step into Armistead Maupin’s house, and you will be greeted by a strapping young gardener, a wave of marijuana smoke, and the most gracious host in...

The life and times of Helena Blavatsky, the controversial religious guru who cofounded the Theosophical Society and kick-started the New Age movement. Recklessly brilliant, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky scandalized her 19th century world with a controversial new religion that tried to synthesize...

An illuminating account of the history-making friendship between RFK and the chief of staff to JFK—a bond built on shared ideals, but severed by tragedy. When they first met at Harvard in 1946, young Bobby Kennedy and Kenny O’Donnell could not have imagined where their lives would take...

A deep dive into James Earl Ray’s role in the national tragedy: “Superb . . . a model of investigation . . . as gripping as a first-class detective story” (The New York Times). On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, by a single assassin’s bullet....

**A collection of wise words on solitude, simplicity, nature, and life at Walden from the leader of the transcendentalist movement. ** In excerpts collected here from his most important works, Henry David Thoreau documents his experiences in nature and the wisdom he finds in his explorations...

The intimate and revealing memoir of the woman behind the bestselling Cazalet Chronicles and a fascinating window into the British literary world.   One of Britain’s most famous and beloved authors, Elizabeth Jane Howard’s life was as rich, varied, and passionate as the characters in her novels....

New York Times Bestseller: The “miraculous” memoir of an inspiring teacher and the students who changed his life on an impoverished South Carolina island (Newsweek).   Though the children of Yamacraw Island live less than two miles from the southern mainland, they can’t name the US president...

A courageous female journalist’s classic exposé of the horrific treatment of the mentally ill in nineteenth-century America In 1887, Nellie Bly accepted an assignment from publisher Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and went undercover at the lunatic asylum on Blackwell Island, America’s...