That the poet John Gower was a major literary figure in England at the close of the fourteenth century is no longer in question. Scholarly attention paid to him and to his work over the past twenty- five years has redeemed him from an undeserved obscurity imposed by the preceding two hundred. The facts of his life and career are now documented, and recent critical assessment has placed his achievement most accurately alongside Chaucer's, Langland's, and the Gawain- poet's. Unique among his contemporaries, all of whom undoubtedly read and used French in some measure, Gower alone has left us a significant body of verse and prose in Anglo-Norman; chiefly, the twelve-stanza poem Mirour de l-Omme, the Cinkante Balades, and the Traitié pour les amantz marietz. We are offered in this concordance of his Anglo- Norman work a unique opportunity to view a poetic language as it was written and read in England until Gower's death in 1408 and beyond.

Soul Survivor explores the depths of human emotions, both real and imagined. That any I of us reach adulthood in one piece, emotionally or physically is a miracle of no small proportion. That any of us reach adulthood to contribute back to society and become highly respected in the community is truly a gift of time and place. Soul Survivor is a true story of fortitude, and iron will and looking to the future in the hope that tomorrow will be better than today. Soul Survivor is nothing less than a story of triumph. "Little Mary" Reese spent her childhood living, working and playing in a funeral home. Her mother, Mrs. Mary ("Big Mary") Reese, was well known and respected in the African-American community in Los Angeles through the operation of a prestigious black funeral home. Little Mary's story tells what really happens behind the embalming room doors- the light and dark side of life. Soul Survivor is both humorous and mischievous, and talks of sex, murder, voodoo, preachers and deviate gravediggers. Famous entertainers that passed through Little Mary's life include Redd Foxx, Lou Rawls, Sam Cooke, Billy Preston and Johnny Cochran. Little Mary was born in 1944 in the South, reared in the Southwest and was often disparagingly referred to as "high-yellow." During racial tensions of the '50s and '60s, Little Mary found her hue to be a major issue but not her only problem. Mary's mother caused her to endure life threatening situations due to her drinking and wild ways. Little Mary’s childhood experiences, the mental and physical abuse faced each day, led her to believe that her only true friends were the dead people in the funeral home. Indeed, Little Mary received a BS degree (Be Smart) at an early age. It was the only way she I knew to survive. Little Mary's story is and unlikely but revealing peek into the unexpected and in the end, truly a story of a Soul Survivor.

Knut Hamsun (4 août 1859 - 19 février 1952) était un écrivain norvégien qui a reçu le prix Nobel de littérature en 1920. L'œuvre de Hamsun s'étend sur plus de 70 ans et montre des variations en ce qui concerne la conscience, le sujet, la perspective et l'environnement. Il a publié plus de 20 romans, un recueil de poésie, quelques nouvelles et pièces de théâtre, un récit de voyage, des ouvrages de non-fiction et quelques essais.