Djuna Barnes

"The self-described 'most famous unknown author in the world,' Djuna Barnes (1892 - 1982) is increasingly regarded as an important voice of feminism, modernism, and lesbian culture. Best remembered for her 1936 novel Nightwood, Barnes began her career by writing poetry, short stories, and articles for avant-garde literary journals as well as popular magazines. She took the grotesque nature of reality as her recurrent theme, a pessimistic world view frequently brightened by her sparkling wit. A longtime resident of Greenwich Village, Barnes drew inspiration from the bustling streets of Lower Manhattan, and this eclectic compilation of her early journalism, fiction, and poetry recaptures the vitality of her bohemian literary scene. The collection opens with articles ranging from an account of an evening at the Arcadia, a "modern dance hall, "to a firsthand report of the force-feeding endured by suffragettes in 1914. In addition to profiles of a postman, vaudeville performer, and other local personalities, Barnes interviews Lillian Russell and Alfred Stieglitz and describes an encounter with James Joyce. A dozen short stories follow, and the book concludes with a selection of compelling and sensual poetry, including verse from The Book of Repulsive Women. A selection of the author's original illustrations is included"--

"At Nightwood's center are the love affairs of Robin Vote - a character based on Barnes's lover, Thelma Wood. Robin marries Felix Volkbein, an eccentric aristocrat, whom she meets in Paris, and whom she abandons years later for the American Nora Flood. But Nora cannot contain Robin, either, and Robin in turn deserts her for the larcenous Jenny Petherbridge. Rich in irony and symbolism, Nightwood depicts the all-consuming power of erotic obsession in language that twists and turns, drawing the reader into a labyrinth of meaning and revelation. This edition also includes T. S. Eliot's Introduction to the 1937 American edition."--BOOK JACKET.

The horse has been championed throughout history as a war machine, a means of transport, an adjunct to farming, a source of popular entertainment, and, finally, as a true friend and companion. So it's no surprise that writers throughout history have featured the horse prominently in their fiction. Here are 25 stories and 5 poems of equine fiction and literature, from Anna Sewell's Black Beauty to classic tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, and many others! Included are: BLACK BEAUTY, by Anna Sewell THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER, by A.B. Paterson [poem] CHU CHU, by Bret Harte JOHN G., by Katherine Mayo GULLIVER'S TRAVELS: A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS, by Jonathan Swift HOW THE OLD HORSE WON THE BET, by Oliver Wendell Holmes [poem] A HORSE'S TALE, by Mark Twain THE TALKING HORSE, by F. Anstey SAMUEL COWLES AND HIS HORSE ROYAL, by Eugene Field A HORSEMAN IN THE SKY, by Ambrose Bierce THE DUN HORSE, by George Bird Grinnell The Enchanted Horse, by Amy Steedman AT GALWAY RACES, by William Butler Yeats [poem] A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A FREIGHT-CAR, by W.H.H. Murray BUYING A HORSE, by William Dean Howells SKIPPER: BEING THE BIOGRAPHY OF A BLUE-RIBBONER, by Sewell Ford THE INSTINCT OF ANIMALS: HORSES, by Thomas Bingley A NIGHT AMONG THE HORSES, by Djuna Barnes HE WALKED AROUND THE HORSES, by H. Beam Piper THE HORSE OF THE INVISIBLE, by William Hope Hodgson MILES KEOGH'S HORSE, by John Hay [poem] THE WAR HORSE OF ALEXANDER, by Plutarch, edited by Andrew Lang HEADS AND TALES: THE HORSE, edited by Adam White HEART BAR JOHNNY, by Mary Wickizer Burgess LADY CLARE: THE STORY OF A HORSE, by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen ZADIG: THE DOG AND THE HORSE, by Voltaire MY FIRST HORSE SURGERY, by Mark E. Burgess [Silver Blaze]( by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle THE BALLAD OF THE DROVER, by Henry Lawson [poem] HORSE LATITUDES: RETURN TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS, by Robert Reginald