Bob Blaisdell – författare

Considered a pioneer of the short story genre and a trailblazer in modern fiction, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) started writing at age 20.By 27, he had shifted from traditional storytelling methods to examining the experiences of everyday individuals in mundane circumstances. His evocative portrayals of Russian life and the complexities of human existence resonate with deep emotional sincerity.Chekhov published hundreds of short stories, earning acclaim from a diverse audience, including contemporaries like Leo Tolstoy. Chekhov shared insights into the writing process, offered guidance to aspiring writers, and mentored his brother, Alexander.This anthology showcases Chekhov's wisdom through quotations from his letters, conversations, notebooks, and works, providing essential lessons in emotional depth and authentic representation of human experiences – an excellent compendium for students, journalists, and writers of every genre.

A controversial figure in the history of race relations around the world, Marcus Garvey amazed his enemies as much as he dazzled his admirers. This anthology contains some of the African-American rights advocate's most noted writings and speeches, including "Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World" and "Africa for the Africans."

From the most eloquent of American presidents, nearly 400 astute observations on subjects ranging from women to warfare: "Bad promises are better broken than kept"; "Marriage is neither heaven nor hell; it is simply purgatory"; "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

"Familiarity breeds contempt — and children." "When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear." "Heaven for climate. Hell for company." This attractive paperback gift edition of the renowned American humorist's epigrams and witticisms features hundreds of quips on life, love, history, culture, travel, and other topics from his fiction, essays, letters, and autobiography.

The mysterious power of dreams has always fascinated humanity.Theories of interpretation, meaning, and symbolism have varied, yet their intrigue remains eternal. This captivating anthology of dreams represents the experiences of great authors and characters as well as their nighttime wanderings, awakened through passages from the Bible, classical Greek literature, novels, memoirs, essays, philosophy, psychology, and poetry. It explores perspectives both critical and in awe of dreaming’s incredible narrative potential, offering readers an enlightening glimpse into timeless nocturnal musings that can reveal a writer’s most intimate self through nightmare and comedy alike!This original collection contains selections from Louisa May Alcott, the Brontë sisters, G. K. Chesterton, Cicero, René Descartes, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud, Homer, Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other dreamers.

In the late 1880s, Leo Tolstoy began compiling material for a collection of quotations that he deemed to reflect the wisdom of the centuries. His goal was to create a circle of reading for himself and others that included such thought leaders as Lau Tzu, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Jesus, and many others. Between 1904 and 1910 he published three different versions of this work under the titles Thoughts of Wise Men, A Calendar of Wisdom, and The Way of Life. A 1912 edition of A Calendar of Wisdom was translated into English and published in 1997 and has sold over 40,000 copies to date. But Tolstoy himself was a wise man, and has shared much knowledge through his many writings over the years. In this book, editor Bob Blaisdell has collected material that represents Tolstoy's inspirational thoughts over the years that reveal a man who at times contradicts himself, and one who was also tirelessly seeking truth and the meaning of life. Topics range from self-improvement, education, marriage and family, good and evil, peace, war, and civil disobedience, with quotations from diaries, letters, fiction, essays, and conversations. This original collection reflects on a man of a certain time and place, and yet contains wisdom and food for thought for literature lovers and lay people alike.

After writing such popular novels as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy experienced a religious crisis. By the late 1870s, Tolstoy had left the Russian Orthodox Church and embarked on a quest for spiritual truth, writing profound fable-like short stories.This volume features five enlightening tales that exemplify Tolstoy's spiritual journey, illuminating the paths to human virtue and salvation. Forgiveness blooms amidst injustice in "God Sees the Truth but Waits," while "What Men Live By" reveals the universal need for compassion. "Where Love Is, There God Is Also" is a nod to the Catholic hymn Ubi Caritas and exhibits the transformative power of divine love and charitable acts. "The Three Hermits" emphasizes the simplicity of faith and sincere prayer, and "Divine and Human" thunders the moral call to help those in need, defying personal risk and societal norms.

With a profound passion for beauty, nature, and craftsmanship, 19th-century art critic and polymath John Ruskin was a visionary thinker and influential social commentator who revolutionized how society viewed art and its connection to life.This affordably priced anthology captures his timeless wisdom, which continues to influence 21st-century artists. It serves as a reminder of the deeper purpose of art beyond aesthetics, prioritizing authenticity – the essence of nature and reality. Ruskin's opposition to industrialization's dehumanizing effects is relevant today, as artists critique digital technology's impact on creativity. From his belief in art's educational, moral, and emotional impact to the artist's role, Ruskin's ideas inspire today's artists to maintain a balance between tradition and innovation, ensuring art remains personal and reflective of the world it inhabits.

Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard (b. 1968) made a literary mark on his home country in 1998, when his debut novel won the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. His fame continued to grow with the publication of his six-volume autobiographical series Min Kamp, or My Struggle. Translated into English in 2012, the critically acclaimed and controversial series garnered global attention, as did its author. Conversations with Karl Ove Knausgaard is a collection of twenty-two interviews, each conducted during the ten-year span in which Knausgaard’s literary prowess gained worldwide recognition.Knausgaard is both a daring writer and a daring interviewee. He grounds his observations in the ordinary aspects of the world around him, which, he insists, is the same world in front of most of his readers. He regards his appearances in newspapers, magazines, and literary festivals as "a performance," where he plays himself. While that role may differ from his inner life, it is consistent with the role he plays in his autobiographical novels. Fans of Knausgaard will easily recognize this public persona, an embodiment of the protagonist, husband, and father featured in My Struggle and in the Seasons quartet.Knausgaard discusses his work, aspects of his personal life, and his writing routines and practices in marvelous detail. He comments on literary and artistic world classics and on international contemporary authors. A bilingual speaker, he is accustomed to appearing before the press and in front of audiences in his roles as a famous author and as the publisher and cofounder of the publishing house Pelikanen (Pelican). Remarkable for his candor and directness, Knausgaard delivers the same variety and number of surprises in these interviews as he does in his most thrilling books.

Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard (b. 1968) made a literary mark on his home country in 1998, when his debut novel won the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. His fame continued to grow with the publication of his six-volume autobiographical series Min Kamp, or My Struggle. Translated into English in 2012, the critically acclaimed and controversial series garnered global attention, as did its author. Conversations with Karl Ove Knausgaard is a collection of twenty-two interviews, each conducted during the ten-year span in which Knausgaard’s literary prowess gained worldwide recognition.Knausgaard is both a daring writer and a daring interviewee. He grounds his observations in the ordinary aspects of the world around him, which, he insists, is the same world in front of most of his readers. He regards his appearances in newspapers, magazines, and literary festivals as "a performance," where he plays himself. While that role may differ from his inner life, it is consistent with the role he plays in his autobiographical novels. Fans of Knausgaard will easily recognize this public persona, an embodiment of the protagonist, husband, and father featured in My Struggle and in the Seasons quartet.Knausgaard discusses his work, aspects of his personal life, and his writing routines and practices in marvelous detail. He comments on literary and artistic world classics and on international contemporary authors. A bilingual speaker, he is accustomed to appearing before the press and in front of audiences in his roles as a famous author and as the publisher and cofounder of the publishing house Pelikanen (Pelican). Remarkable for his candor and directness, Knausgaard delivers the same variety and number of surprises in these interviews as he does in his most thrilling books.

Renowned Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy had an abiding interest in children and in children's literature. At the age of twenty-one, he started a school for peasant children on his family's estate, and after returning from a stint in the military, he founded another, experimental school with the motto, "Come when you like, leave when you like."Fascinated by the simple charm and the fresh innocence with which the children of his schools told stories, several years later, when Tolstoy began writing about his own childhood, he emulated the uncomplicated narrative style and disarming directness of the tales told by the children of his acquaintance. After completing War and Peace, he incorporated these stories in a series of easy readers, and continued to work on them even while writing Anna Karenina. Known as The ABC Book (Azbuka) and subsequently The New ABC Book (Novy Azbuka), these marvelous readers were widely adopted in Russia and were still in use in the Soviet era.The tales and fables in this volume come mainly from these two well-loved primers. Part I consists of stories about his own childhood, all told with beautiful simplicity. Part II contains Tolstoy's free adaptations of fables from Aesop and from Hindu tradition. Part III is devoted solely to his longest and most famous children's work, the fairy tale "Ivan the Fool and His Two Brothers."Never patronizing and often humorous, these small gems reveal Tolstoy's deep appreciation for and understanding of children's artistic and moral sensibilities.

A revelatory portrait of Chekhov during the most extraordinary artistic surge of his life.In 1886, a twenty-six-year-old Anton Chekhov was publishing short stories, humor pieces, and articles at an astonishing rate, and was still a practicing physician.  Yet as he honed his craft and continued to draw inspiration from the vivid characters in his own life, he found himself—to his surprise and occasional embarrassment—admired by a growing legion of fans, including Tolstoy himself.  He had not yet succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis. He was a lively, frank, and funny correspondent and a dedicated mentor.  And as Bob Blaisdell discovers, his vivid articles, stories, and plays from this period—when read in conjunction with his correspondence—become a psychological and emotional secret diary.  When Chekhov struggled with his increasingly fraught engagement, young couples are continually making their raucous way in and out of relationships on the page. When he was overtaxed by his medical duties, his doctor characters explode or implode. Chekhov’s talented but drunken older brothers and Chekhov’s domineering father became transmuted into characters, yet their emergence from their family's serfdom is roiling beneath the surface. Chekhov could crystalize the human foibles of the people he knew into some of the most memorable figures in literature and drama. In Chekhov Becomes Chekhov, Blaisdell astutely examines the psychological portraits of Chekhov's distinct, carefully observed characters and how they reflect back on their creator during a period when there seemed to be nothing between his imagination and the paper he was writing upon.