Books by Perseus

The novel that launched the beat generation's literary legacy describes the world of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Neil Cassady. Drafted two months before Jack Kerouac began On The Road, Go is the first and most accurate chronicle of the private lives lived by the Beats before they became public figures. In honest, lucid fictional prose designed to capture the events, emotions, and essence of his experience among the Beats, Holmes describes an individualistic post-World War II New York where crime is celebrated, writing is revered, and parties, booze, discussions, drugs, and sex punctuate life. The most tentative and conservative of the Beats, Holmes's intelligent and sensitive voice also details the pressures and regrets that his lifestyle gave birth to. With portraits of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neil Cassady, William Burroughs, this first novel about the Beat Generation gives us a peek into what it meant to be a Beat before the term had ever been used. "... still one of the best novels about the Beat Generation ... brilliant and important.",The Los Angeles Free Press " I want to write to you about ... your book. You did the honest thing, the big thing, the good thing.",Jack Kerouac "Go signaled the start of something new in American literature. A generation with a new consciousness had found its voice...",Ann Charters

Everyone loves a carnival, whether it's the Big Top or a traveling midway kicking up dust. These roving extravaganzas are as amusing as they are mysterious and as innocent as they are sordid. Step Right Up is a one-of-a-kind anthology that collects the finest literature and the most absorbing first-person accounts about carnivals, sideshows, and the circus, capturing all of the spectacle and sensation of this unusual and treasured tradition. A colourful assortment of characters populate the fairgrounds and circus tents of this unique collection from circus legends like P. T. Barnum and Otis Jordan the Frog Prince to a motley crew of ride monkeys and rubes. Step Right Up takes the reader everywhere from a small village in Romania to the streets of Coney Island and offers everything from Fred Rosen's account of the scandalous demise of Grady "Lobster Boy" Stiles Jr. to imaginative fiction like Michael Chabon's macabre take on the origin of clowns. The bizarre romance and mystery of the world's oldest and oddest traveling institution come to life in selections from Katherine Dunn, Kevin Baker, Jim Tully, Flannery O'Connor, Lee Durkee, Robert Hough, Michael Chabon, Fred Rosen, Susan Dickinson, Joseph Michell, Edora Welty, and Ellen Hunnicut.

In this debut collection of eight compulsively readable stories, McIntyre combines honesty and compassion with hilarious dialogue, marking the auspicious arrival of an exciting new talent.

Through interviews and critical essays, and excerpts from Vollmann's books, journalism, essays, correspondence, and poetry, "Expelled from Eden" creates a unique, kaleidoscopic portrait of one of America's most important writers.

In the Realms of the Unreal: "Insane" WritingsEdited by John G. H. Oakes.Foreword by Kurt Vonnegut. "This is what poetic expression is all about."-Library Journal. "Demanding but mind-expanding reading."-Publishers WeeklyISBN 0-941423-57-3

In "A Booke of Days", Rivele brilliantly recreates the First Crusade of 1096, a brutal, ungodly expedition of greed and conquest. "An absorbing and intelligent look at a fascinating period of history".--"Publishers Weekly".

In this lovely and informative book, Carolyn White delves into one of the most intriguing aspects of Irish folklore, the otherworld of fairies. Whether you''re a true believer or not, it''s impossible not to be seduced by the details of their universe, as White covers everything from the central question of the numerous varieties of fairies to more detailed inquiries about what they eat, where they live, and what happens when a fairy and a mortal fall in love. This is the ultimate guide to the Wee People, from cluricauns and leprechauns, to Silkies, Banshees, and Pookas. Chapters include: Fairies and the Devil, Fairy Clothes and Appearance, Immortality of Fairies, and How to Provoke a Fairy. Filled with entertaining stories and interesting details, A History of Irish Fairies will delight any reader who has ever been curious about this whimsical facet of Irish culture.

Each year, for the past seventeen years, Mysterious Bookshop proprietor Otto Penzler has commissioned an original Christmas story by a leading suspense writer. These stories were then produced as pamphlets, just 1,000 copies, and given to customers of the bookstore as a Christmas present. Now, all seventeen tales have been collected in one volume, showcasing the talents of:Charles Ardai • Lisa AtkinsonGeorge Baxt • Lawrence BlockMary Higgins Clark • Thomas H. CookRon Goulart • Jeremiah HealyEdward D. Hoch • Rupert HolmesAndrew Klavan • Michael MaloneEd McBain • Anne Perry • S. J. RozanJonathan Santlofer • Donald E. WestlakeSome of these stories are humorous, others suspenseful, and still others are tales of pure detection, but all of them together make up a charming collection and a perfect Christmas gift for all ages.

Bill Bradley is arguably one of the most well-versed public figures of our time. The eighteen-year New Jersey Senator, financial and investment adviser, Olympic and NBA athlete, national radio host, and bestselling author has lived in the United States as both political insider and outsider, national sports celebrity and behind-the-scenes confidante, leader and teammate. His varied experiences help to inform his unique and much-sought-after point of view on Washington and the country at large.   In We Can All Do Better, for the first time since the financial meltdown and since the worst of the intensifying political gridlock, Bradley offers his own concise, powerful, and highly personal review of the state of the nation. Bradley argues that government is not the problem. He criticizes the role of money and politics, explains how continuing on our existing foreign policy, electoral, and economic paths will mean a diminished future, and lays out exactly what needs to be done to reverse course.   Breaking from the intransigent long-held viewpoints of both political parties, and with careful attention to our nation’s history, Bradley passionately lays out his narrative. He offers a no-holds-barred prescription on subjects including job creation, deficit reduction, education, and immigration. While equally critical of the approaches of the Tea Party and Occupy Movements, he champions the power of individual Americans to organize, speak out, bridge divisions, and he calls on the media to assume a more responsible role in our national life. As this moving call to arms reminds us, we can all—elected officials, private citizens, presidents—do a better job of moving our country forward. Bradley is perhaps the best guide imaginable, with his firsthand knowledge of governments’ inner-workings, the country’s diversity, and the untapped potential of the American people.

A mammoth study of one of the most mysterious figures on the fringes of the Kennedy assassination: Richard Case Nagell, described as the man "hired to kill Oswald and prevent the assassination of JFK" This amazing story has been revised and expanded with a decade's worth of new classified information since the book's original publication in 1993. Freelance investigative journalist Dick Russell delves deep into Richard Case Nagell's strange past, revealing that Nagell had been a contact for both the CIA and KGB at different times. The author's detailed and expert reconstruction of historic events will have readers wondering and questioning about new possible leads never before imagined in this still-unsolved murder.

The inspiration for the film The Face of an Angel, starring Kate Beckinsale and Daniel BrühlIn November 2007 Meredith Kercher, a fresh-faced honor student, was found dead in her shared apartment in Perugia, Italy. Her body, naked but for a T-shirt, was covered in bruises; her blood-smeared hand was suspended in the air above her face; and she had fatal stab wounds in her neck. The Italian police eventually arrested three people in connection with Meredith’s killing. One was her flat-mate Amanda Knox who, with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede, was convicted of murder in 2011. They received jail terms of twenty-six and twenty-five years. After four years in prison, Knox and Sollecito successfully appealed their convictions and were released, only to be reconvicted in January 2014.Barbie Latza Nadeau covered every step of the investigation, trial, and appeal. She has been relentless in following the byzantine processes of Italian law and has never lost sight of the central question: who killed Meredith Kercher?

One of the most important assets you have is your earning ability: your ability to do something that other people will pay you for. This asset can be valuable and increase each year, or it can be stagnant and flat. Your greatest financial responsibility is to organize your time and your work so that you earn the very most possible throughout your  lifetime. Earn What You’re Really Worth will show you how. This book will be the bible of career advancement for your indefinite future. These tested, proven strategies will save you years of hard work and thousands of dollars of lost income. You will learn how to organize your life to ensure that you are earning the very maximum at every stage of your career. Earn What You’re Really Worth is for every person who works in any competitive industry, including staff members or executives who want to earn more money, people in job transition, students entering the workplace, and every unemployed person who wants to get back into the workforce.

The longtime editor in chief of Variety takes readers behind the scenes of some of the most iconic films of the '60s and '70s and details his own whirlwind journey to the forefront of a Hollywood revolution.

The first collection of writings about Tom Waits-spanning the artist's thirty-year career in music, film, and theatre-and featuring the most revealing, bizarre, provocative, and hilarious interviews, profiles, reviews, and conversations with the world's favourite bohemian bandleader

"A gentle dream of a novel, precise and careful, about the end of childhood. A very original, serious, heartfelt piece of work."-Christopher Bram, author, Gods & Monsters

In a crafty new novel featuring the world's greatest literary detective, Alan Vanneman extends the boundaries of the Sherlock Holmes canon with an investigation that takes the celebrated sleuth and his cohort Dr. Watson far from the cozy Victorian comforts of 221B Baker Street. Indeed, enjoying the luxuries of the Orient Express, they travel the breadth of fin de siècle Europe to exotic Constantinople, though not strictly in pursuit of pleasure. For death, too, is traveling first class. The mystery begins familiarly enough in London, in the middle of the night. Holmes and Watson are summoned to a crime scene that seems to vanish before their eyes, as they find themselves with neither evidence nor a client. They do not want for opposition, however, not with the governments of three great empires arrayed against them. As Holmes strives to unmask his most ruthless and elusive foe, he is transported into a world of high finance rife with intrigue and crime. With a cast of characters that includes the enchanting Countess D'Espinau and Winston Churchill, as well as a beggar girl whom Watson adopts, Holmes follows a trail that leads ultimately and unpredictably to the fabled and fabulous lost Hapsburg Tiara.

Fifty Best Mysteries is a who's who of mystery from the pages of the leading magazine in the field. Showcasing the best short fiction published in Ellery Queen magazine over the past sixty years, this book is a treasure trove for mystery lovers everywhere. As editor Eleanor Sullivan writes, "I took the task by decades and decided to go after solid and entertaining stories by regular and significant contributors, stories that reflected the time in which they were written and the best work being produced in that decade." To this end, Sullivan has collected an astounding array of talent, from early works by John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham, Anthony Boucher, and Ngaio Marsh in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, to later selections by Patricia Highsmith, Robert Bloch, Ruth Rendell, Donald E. Westlake, and Simon Brett that have appeared over the past three decades. Correction: Eleanor Sullivan, the author of Twice Dead, is alive and writing in St. Louis. See www.EleanorSullivan.com. Eleanor Sullivan, the editor of Fifty Best Mysteries, passed away in 1991. This corrects the back page of the book and the entry in the Carroll & Graf imprint section of the Avalon Publishing Group catalogue.

A seemingly impossible murder in a London rooming house sends master sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, on a perilous search for a killer that leads them from England to Egypt, India, and Singapore, as they encounter formidable foes, including the evil Harat and corrupt Lord Barrin

"The MIT-educated Saylor exhibits a deep knowledge of the mobile world, and gives readers a peek free of boring geek-speak."-USA Today

Swirling with witchcraft and sensuality, Hex blends the futurism of Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson with the sexual explorations of Samuel R. Delany and Jim Grimsley in this thrilling novel of supernatural mystery

For years Gerald lived for his twin passions, acting and sex. And as a young actor, he found plenty of opportunities to perform in both arenas. No longer young or in demand, Gerald is waiting to die. He has drawn up a last will and testament, a living will, assigned a health care proxy, and arranged his own cremation.

The classic tale of a female Huck Finn, Peter Bogdanovich's film version of the book was nominated for four Academy Awards. Set in the darkest days of the Great Depression, this is the timeless story of an 11-year-old orphan's rollicking journey through the Deep South with a con man who just might be her father. Brimming with humor, pathos, and an irresistible narrative energy, this is American storytelling at its finest. Paper Moon is tough, vibrant, and ripe for rediscovery.