The first full biography of "the Darwin of Homeric Studies"—arguably the most influential classical scholar of the twentieth century—who overturned the long entrenched notions of ancient epic poetry and expanded the very idea of literature.In the early 1930s, Milman Parry introduced the hypothesis that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not "written" as we understand it, but derived from an oral tradition going back centuries. It was a revolutionary theory, but quickly accepted, and its effects are still felt in contemporary scholarship. But Parry himself has all but disappeared from view. Now, Robert Kanigel gives us a full and vivid account of his life: of his childhood in Oakland, California, in the early years of the century; his time as part of the "progressive set" at Berkeley; his marriage at twenty-one to the woman he'd gotten pregnant; their journey to Paris where he attends the Sorbonne, discovering the pleasures of the city—and the...

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 during the early twentieth century for the rich communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke. With the Irish language vanishing all through the rest of Ireland, the Great Blasket became a magnet for scholars and writers drawn there during the Gaelic renaissance--and the scene for a memorable clash of cultures between modern life and an older, sometimes sweeter world slipping away. Kanigel introduces us to the playwright John Millington Synge, some of whose characters in The Playboy of the Western World, were inspired by his time on the island; Carl Marstrander, a Norwegian linguist who gave his place on Norway's Olympic team for a summer on the...

The first major biography of the irrepressible woman who changed the way we view and live in cities, and whose influence can still be felt in any discussion of urban planning to this day. Eyes on the Street is a revelation of the phenomenal woman who raised three children, wrote seven groundbreaking books, saved neighborhoods, stopped expressways, was arrested twice, and engaged at home and on the streets in thousands of debates—all of which she won. Here is the child who challenged her third-grade teacher; the high school poet; the journalist who honed her writing skills at Iron Age, Architectural Forum, Fortune, and other outlets, while amassing the knowledge she would draw upon to write her most famous book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Here, too, is the activist who helped lead an ultimately successful protest against Robert Moses's proposed expressway through her beloved Greenwich Village; and who, in order...