Mentor and guide to the Lost Generation of expatriate American writers, including Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein (1874&;1946) is perhaps better known for her Parisian salon than her literary works. Yet her innovative approach to writing and her originality of thought make the impact of her books on contemporary literature enormous.

Tender Buttons, published in 1914, is vintage Stein. She pushes abstraction to its farthest limits by experimenting with words purely as words in a style...

Frederick Douglass's Narrative recounts his life as a slave in Maryland and escape to freedom in 1838. An important slave autobiography, it is significant both for what it tells us about slave life and about its author. It is here reprinted with contexualizing source material and other writings by Douglass, as well as an introduction discussing its literary and historical significance.

A book for finding purpose and strength in times of great despair, the international best-seller is still just as relevant today as when it was first published.

"This is a book I reread a lot . . . it gives me hope . . . it gives me a sense of strength."

-Anderson Cooper, Anderson Cooper 360/CNN

Man's Search for Meaning is more relevant than ever, Viktor Frank's message provides hope even in the darkest of times. It has sold more than 16 million copies in fifty languag...

A seminal piece of writing about emigration and identity.

Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative is remarkable for its candid exposure of the sexual abuse suffered by slaves at the hands of their owners. Her sufferings, and eventual escape to the North, are described in vivid detail. This edition also includes her brother's short memoir, 'A True Tale of Slavery'.

A BARACK OBAMA FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2020A New York Times best book of 2020One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans. Right after the election of 2016, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocu...

Frederick Douglass werd geboren als Amerikaanse slaaf en leerde zichzelf lezen en schrijven. Hij werd een gedreven strijder tegen de slavernij, briljant schrijver, journalist en spreker, wiens speeches het abolitionisme aanwakkerden. In zijn jeugd werd hij lichamelijk en geestelijk mishandeld, maar door zijn ijzeren wil werd hij een belangrijk voorvechter van zijn volk.

In deze autobiografie schetst hij een indringend beeld van zijn ellendige leven als slaaf, en een adembenemend beeld van zij...

Constantijn Huygens was a poet, composer and connoisseur of art and the classics. He was also secretary and confidant to three princes of Orange for 62 years. Hofwijck was also the place where Constantijn’s son Christiaan spent a significant part of his life. Christiaan Huygens was a member of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge and became one of the greatest inventors and scientists.

At the end of his life, at Hofwijck, he wrote Cosmotheoros, his magnum op...

Maya Angelou's phenomenal seven volume autobiography is now available on the Virago Modern Classics list.

In de Tweede Wereldoorlog zijn de carrières van veel componisten geknakt. Een groot aantal van hen moest vluchten of dook onder, velen werden vermoord. Alleen al in Nederland zijn ten minste dertig componisten vervolgd en veelal vergeten. Onder hen waren joodse componisten als Leo Smit, Rosy Wertheim, Dick Kattenburg en Daniël Belinfante. Maar ook naar Nederland gevluchte componisten als Hans Lachman, Franz Weisz, en componisten die vanwege hun verzetsactiviteiten moesten onderduiken of gev...