Kirjahaku

"Send those on land that will show themselves diligent writers." So urged the "sailing instructions" prepared for explorer Henry Hudson. With distinctive command of the primary texts created by such "diligent writers" as Columbus, William Bradford, and Thomas Jefferson, Wayne Franklin describes how the New World was created from their new words. The long verbal discovery of America, he asserts, entailed both advance and retreat, sudden insights and blind insistence on old ways of seeing. The discoverers, explorers, and settlers depicted America in words—or via maps, tables, and landscape views—as a complex spatial and political entity, a place where ancient formula and current fact were inevitably at odds.

The authoritative biography of James Fenimore Cooper, author of the Leather-Stocking Tales and representative figure of the early American republic"For Franklin, Cooper wasn't just a major American writer; he was one of the supreme inventors of the American imagination."—Christopher Benfey, New Republic James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) invented the key forms of American fiction—the Western, the sea tale, the Revolutionary War romance. Furthermore, Cooper turned novel writing from a polite diversion into a paying career. He influenced Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Francis Parkman, and even Mark Twain—who felt the need to flagellate Cooper for his “literary offenses.” His novels mark the starting point for any history of our environmental conscience. Far from complicit in the cleansings of Native Americans that characterized the era, Cooper’s fictions traced native losses to their economic sources. Perhaps no other American writer stands in greater need of a major reevaluation than Cooper. This is the first treatment of Cooper’s life to be based on full access to his family papers. Cooper’s life, as Franklin relates it, is the story of how, in literature and countless other endeavors, Americans in his period sought to solidify their political and cultural economic independence from Britain and, as the Revolutionary generation died, stipulate what the maturing republic was to become. The first of two volumes, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years covers Cooper’s life from his boyhood up to 1826, when, at the age of thirty-six, he left with his wife and five children for Europe.

A definitive new biography of James Fenimore Cooper, early nineteenth-century master of American popular fiction"It will be the definitive biography and foremost study of Cooper’s fiction and nonfiction for the foreseeable future.”— Allan Axelrad, California State University, Fullerton American author James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) has been credited with inventing and popularizing a wide variety of genre fiction, including the Western, the spy novel, the high seas adventure tale, and the Revolutionary War romance. America’s first crusading novelist, Cooper reminds us that literature is not a cloistered art; rather, it ought to be intimately engaged with the world. In this second volume of his definitive biography, Wayne Franklin concentrates on the latter half of Cooper’s life, detailing a period of personal and political controversy, far-ranging international travel, and prolific literary creation. We hear of Cooper’s progressive views on race and slavery, his doubts about American expansionism, and his concern about the future prospects of the American Republic, while observing how his groundbreaking career management paved the way for later novelists to make a living through their writing. Franklin offers readers the most comprehensive portrait to date of this underappreciated American literary icon.

Bill Durmer is in over his head. In Midlife Mouse, the debut novel from filmmaker Wayne Franklin, Durmer, an underachieving genius, runs away to Walt Disney World in the mother of all midlife crises. Led by a series of bizarre encounters, a hyper-caffeinated delusion and a mysterious prophecy, Bill goes to the Magic Kingdom seeking his destiny. But a group of Disney haters will do almost anything to stop him. Pirates and princesses, morticians, moms and man-beasts, spacemen and psychos all have a stake in Bill's future ... and those are the good guys. This is not how he planned to spend his summer vacation.A genre mash-up of contemporary fantasy, Southern lit and mystery, Midlife Mouse builds upon real Disney history to create a fictional mythology for the Most Magical Place on Earth. Oh, and there's a mouse in there, too.

Not all corporate managers are self-serving, clueless jerks who put themselves before even corporate goals, let alone their own teams. Learn of a different way of leading where managers succeed in business, with their people, and in their own careers. Roundly successful managers put people first, including their employees, customers, and bosses, and still keep their focus on corporate goals like shareholder value and profit. You can have it all by doing the right thing by all. This is not a comprehensive work on management but a beginning treatise on managing right, a philosophy of leadership built on doing the right thing and serving people.