Quoth the Maven
More on Language from William Safire
Written by William Safire

Format: eBook, 352 pages
On Sale: November 9, 2011
Price: $11.99

The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist discusses contemporary figures of speech, from witty stories about expressions such as "kiss and tell" and "stab in the back" to the evolution of "read my lips."

NOTE: This edition does not include illustrations.  Read more >

Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control . . .

Written by Fred W. Friendly

Format: eBook, 384 pages
On Sale: March 6, 2013
Price: $11.99

This discourse on the importance of television in society presents Friendly's uncannily prescient views on the corrosive effect of money on the news business, the sensationalization of news reporting, and the viewing public's appetite for quality broadcasting.

With Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly practically invented television journalism. Through telling anecdotes and... Read more >

Stories that Changed America
Muckrakers of the 20th Century
Written by Carl Jensen
Foreword by Hugh Downs

Format: eBook
On Sale: January 4, 2011
Price: $14.95

Exuberantly written, highly informative, Jensen's Stories That Changed America examines the work of twenty-one investigative writers, and how their efforts forever changed our country. Here are the pioneering muckrakers, like Upton Sinclair, author of the fact-based novel The Jungle, that inspired Theodore Roosevelt to sign the Pure Food and Drug Act... Read more >

Do You Speak American?

Written by Robert Macneil and William Cran

Format: eBook, 240 pages
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $11.99

Is American English in decline? Are regional dialects dying out? Is there a difference between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations?

These questions, and more, about our language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—the authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English—across the country... Read more >

Advice to Writers
A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom from a Dazzling Array of Literary Lights
Written by Jon Winokur

Format: eBook, 240 pages
On Sale: April 28, 2010
Price: $13.99

In Advice to Writers, Jon Winokur, author of the bestselling The Portable Curmudgeon, gathers the counsel of more than four hundred celebrated authors in a treasury on the world of writing. Here are literary lions on everything from the passive voice to promotion and publicity: James Baldwin on the practiced illusion... Read more >

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It
The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse
Written by Ben Yagoda

Format: eBook, 272 pages
On Sale: February 12, 2008
Price: $13.99

What do you get when you mix nine parts of speech, one great writer, and generous dashes of insight, humor, and irreverence? One phenomenally entertaining language book.

In his waggish yet authoritative book, Ben Yagoda has managed to undo the dark work of legions of English teachers and libraries of dusty grammar... Read more >

Letter Perfect
The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z
Written by David Sacks

Format: eBook, 416 pages
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $13.99

David Sacks has embarked on a fun, lively, and learned excursion into the alphabet–and into cultural history–in Letter Perfect. Clearly explaining the letters as symbols of precise sounds of speech, the book begins with the earliest known alphabetic inscriptions (circa 1800 b.c.), recently discovered by archaeologists in Egypt, and traces the... Read more >

The Lonely Voice

Written by Frank O'Connor

Format: eBook
On Sale: June 6, 2011
Price: $16.95

Introduction by Russell Banks.

The legendary book about writing by the legendary writer is back!

Frank O’Connor was one of the twentieth century’s greatest short story writers, and one of Ireland’s greatest authors ever. Now, O’Connor’s influential and sought-after book on the short story is back.
The Lonely Voice offers a... Read more >

On an Irish Island

Written by Robert Kanigel

Format: eBook, 336 pages
On Sale: February 7, 2012
Price: $11.99

On an Irish Island is a love letter to a vanished way of life, in which Robert Kanigel, the highly praised author of The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, tells the story of the Great Blasket, a wildly beautiful island off the west coast of Ireland, renowned... Read more >

The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight
Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution
Written by Marc Weingarten

Format: eBook, 336 pages
On Sale: March 31, 2010
Price: $11.99

. . . In Cold Blood, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The Armies of the Night . . .


Starting in 1965 and spanning a ten-year period, a group of writers including Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion... Read more >