This is the first family album of the Perkins Family.

Annie Sullivan was little more than a half-blind orphan with a fiery tongue when she arrived at Ivy Green in 1887. Desperate for work, she’d taken on a seemingly impossible job—teaching a child who was deaf, blind, and as ferocious as any wild animal. But if anyone was a match for Helen Keller, it was the girl who’d been nicknamed Miss Spitfire. In her efforts to reach Helen’s mind, Annie lost teeth to the girl’s raging blows, but she never lost faith in her ability to triumph. Told in first person, Annie Sullivan’s past, her brazen determination, and her connection to the girl who would call her Teacher are vividly depicted in this powerful novel.

Dan Showalter was Speaker Pro Tem of the California State Assembly at the outbreak of the Civil War and the exemplar of treason in the Far West among the pro-Union press. He gained notoriety as the survivor of California's last political (and actual, fatal) duel, for his role in the display of a Confederate flag in Sacramento, and for his imprisonment after an armed confrontation with Union troops. Escaping to Texas, he distinguished himself in the Confederate service in naval battles and in pursuit of Comanche raiders. As commander of the 4th Arizona Cavalry, he helped recapture the Rio Grande Valley from the Union and defended Brownsville against a combined Union and Mexican force. Refusing to surrender at war's end, he fled to Mexico, where he died of a wound sustained in a drunken bar fight at age 35.

Langdon Hammer has given us the first biography of the poet James Merrill (1926–95), whose life is surely one of the most fascinating in American literature. Merrill was born to high privilege and high expectations as the son of Charles Merrill, the charismatic cofounder of the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, and Hellen Ingram, a muse, ally, and antagonist throughout her son’s life. Wounded by his parents’ bitter divorce, he was the child of a broken home, looking for repair in poetry and love. This is the story of a young man escaping, yet also reenacting, the energies and obsessions of those powerful parents. It is the story of a gay man inventing his identity against the grain of American society during the eras of the closet, gay liberation, and AIDS. Above all, it is the story of a brilliantly gifted, fiercely dedicated poet working every day to turn his life into art. After college at Amherst and a period of adventure in Europe, Merrill returned to the New York art world of the 1950s (he was friendly with W. H. Auden, Maya Deren, Truman Capote, Larry Rivers, Elizabeth Bishop, and other midcentury luminaries) and began publishing poems, plays, and novels. In 1953, he fell in love with an aspiring writer, David Jackson. They explored “boys and bars” as they made their life together in Connecticut and later in Greece and Key West. At the same time, improbably, they carried on a forty-year conversation with spirits of the Other World by means of a Ouija board. The board became a source of poetic inspiration for Merrill, culminating in his prizewinning, uncanny, one-of-a-kind work The Changing Light at Sandover. In his virtuosic poetry and in the candid letters and diaries that enrich every page of this deliciously readable life, Merrill created a prismatic art of multiple perspectives and comic self-knowledge, expressing hope for a world threatened by nuclear war and environmental catastrophe. Holding this life and art together in a complex, evolving whole, Hammer illuminates Merrill's “chronicles of love & loss” and the poignant personal journey they record.

Documentary photography is undergoing an unprecedented transformation as it adapts to the impact of digital technology, social media and new distribution methods. In this book, photographer and educator Michelle Bogre contextualizes these changes by offering a historical, theoretical and practical perspective on documentary photography from its inception to the present day. Documentary Photography Reconsidered is structured around key concepts, such as the photograph as witness, as evidence, as memory, as narrative and as a vehicle for activism and social change. Chapters include in-depth interviews with some of the world's leading contemporary practitioners, demonstrating the wide variety of different working styles, techniques and topics available to new photographers entering the field. Every key concept is illustrated with work from a range of innovative, influential and often under-represented photographers, giving a flavor of the depth and range of projects from the history of this global art form. There are also creative projects designed to spark ideas and build skills, to help you conceive, develop and produce your own meaningful documentary projects. The book is supported by a companion website, which includes in-depth video interviews with featured practitioners.

A nationally best-selling author and pastor draws lessons of hope and transformation in the perils of excess, the agonies of repentance, and the wonder of redemption found in the life stories of several icons of pop music and rock and roll. From the author of Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon comes Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus, which traces the journeys, rise, fall, and sometimes the redemption of famous entertainers who were brought to their knees—a great place to look up and finally meet their Maker. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesusexamines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesuschronicles the birth of rock and roll in the mid-1950s to today, giving the book an all-encompassing study of pop music history. Through his personal memories, coupled with his carefully crafted observational research, Greg Laurie not only looks deeply into the hearts and souls of these unusual people but bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey down the secluded halls of the music industry with the individuals who crafted modern-day masterpieces. Readers will enjoy never-before-published accounts of the biggest recording artists of our time and hear testimonies from rockers of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and beyond. More importantly, every reader will find a deeper sense of God’s presence, even in times of loneliness and desolation.

He wrote the songs that made rock immortal--including the all-time classic "Blue Suede Shoes." Now, in a book that "reads like timeless Southern fiction" (Washington Post Book World), Carl Perkins beautifully tells his story. From a life beset with tragedies--including the suicide of his brother--Perkins emerges as a man made stronger through trial and sustained by his lifelong love affair with music. of photos.