Richard Cohen

What made Norman Mailer change from first person to third? Which authors borrowed plots and characters from people they knew? Why did Turgenev envy Tolstoy, and what does that say about how fiction writers create characters? Richard Cohen takes readers on an enchanting journey into the minds, techniques, concerns, tricks and flaws of the world's greatest writers. He reveals how literary legends such as Eliot, Dickens, Woolf, Amis, King and Morrison grappled with problems, questioned themselves and occasionally changed their minds to dramatic effect as they created the stories we love. Playful, profound and brimming with insights, How to Write Like Tolstoy is a charming guide to the writer's craft, disclosing the fascinating stories behind the finest novels we've ever known. Includes revealing insights from the literary lives of Vladimir Nabokov, Fay Weldon, Samuel Beckett, George Orwell, J. D. Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Kate Atkinson, Philip Roth, Emily Brontë, Ali Smith, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Agatha Christie and many more.

A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers

How to Write Like Tolstoy

A history of sword fighting ranges from ancient times to the present-day, profiling great swordsmen and exploring the cultural and social implications of fencing.

A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions

By the Sword

A fascinating, epic exploration of who gets to record the world’s history—from Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burns—and how their biases influence our understanding about the past. There are many stories we can spin about previous ages, but which accounts get told? And by whom? Is there even such a thing as “objective” history? In this lively and thought-provoking book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses, such as the writers of the Bible, novelists, and political propagandists, influence what becomes the accepted record. Cohen argues, for example, that some historians are practitioners of “Bad History” and twist reality to glorify themselves or their country. Making History investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest chroniclers to discover the agendas that informed their—and our—views of the world. From the origins of history writing, when such an activity itself seemed revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, Cohen brings captivating figures to vivid light, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, Winston Churchill and Henry Louis Gates. Rich in complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a revealing exploration of both the aims and art of history-making, one that will lead us to rethink how we learn about our past and about ourselves.

The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past

Making History

A thought-provoking journey inside the minds of the world’s most accomplished storytellers, from Shakespeare to Stephen King NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE SPECTATOR • “Richard Cohen’s book acted as a tonic to me. It didn’t make me more Russian, but it fired up my imagination. I have never annotated a book so fiercely.”—Hilary Mantel “There are three rules for writing a novel,” Somerset Maugham is said to have said. “Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” How then to bring characters to life, find a voice, kill your darlings, or run that most challenging of literary gauntlets, writing a sex scene? What made Nabokov choose the name Lolita? Why did Fitzgerald use firstperson narration in The Great Gatsby ? How did Kerouac, who raged against revision, finally come to revise On the Road ? Veteran editor and author Richard Cohen takes us on an engrossing journey into the lives and minds of the world’s greatest writers, from Honoré de Balzac and George Eliot to Virginia Woolf and Zadie Smith—with a few mischievous detours to visit Tolstoy along the way. In a scintillating tour d’horizon, Cohen lays bare the tricks, motivations, and techniques of the literary greats, revealing their obsessions and flaws and how we can learn from them along the way.

A Journey into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers

"For anyone who has ever identified with a hero or heroine, been seduced by a strong opening sentence, or been powerfully moved by a story's end, [this is a] journey inside the minds of the world's most accomplished storytellers, from Shakespeare to Stephen King"--Amazon.com.

The Sun is so powerful, so much bigger than us, that it is a terrifying subject. Yet though we depend on it, we take it for granted. Amazingly the first book of its kind, Chasing the Sun is a cultural and scientific history of our relationship with the star that gives us life.

The Epic Story of the Star that Gives Us Life

Chasing the Sun

Domestic Tranquility

Peter A. Wilson

This book, first published in 1990, evaluates what future policy adjustments the US will have to make in order to successfully navigate through a national security environment radically altered from that of the past and one determined more than at any point in the post-war period by the economic performance of both superpowers. The structure of the book centres around two issues that will determine the future national security environment facing the US. Discussed are stakes of the threat, the response of the Soviet Union to the challenge of economic and related social/political decline and its implications for the Soviet national defence effort. Also studied are the resources available to the US to meet the threat, the status of the US economic performance and the magnitude of resource stress it is likely to face in the future and its probable impact on the US national defence effort.

U.S. Strategy for the Transcentury Era

Superpowers in Economic Decline

In the grand tradition of the scholar-adventurer, acclaimed author Richard Cohen takes us around the world to illuminate our relationship with the star that gives us life. Drawing on more than seven years of research, he reports from locations in eighteen different countries. As he soon discovers, the Sun is present everywhere—in mythology, language, religion, politics, sciences, art, literature, and medicine, even in the ocean’s depths. For some ancient worshippers, our star was a man abandoned by his spouse because his brightness made her weary. The early Christians appropriated the Sun’s imagery, with the cross becoming an emblem of the star and its rays, and the halo a variation of that. Einstein helped replicate the Sun’s power to create the atomic bomb, while Richard Wagner had Tristan inveigh against daylight as the enemy of romantic love. In this splendidly illustrated volume packed with captivating facts, extraordinary myths, and surprising anecdotes, Cohen not only explains the star that so inspires us, but shows how multifacted our relationship with it has been—and continues to be.

The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life

HOPE AND HEALING FOR FAMILIES Out of his own experience and the experience of many of those he has served in his counseling practice, Richard Cohen sets out a step-by-step plan that offers a path toward renewed family relationships grounded in love, faith and mutual respect....

A Plan for Family Healing

Gay Children, Straight Parents

MAKING HISTORY is an epic exploration of who writes about the past and how the biases of certain storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - continue to influence our ideas about history (and about who we are) today. In this authoritative and entertaining book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses (such as the writers of the Bible, major novelists, dramatists, journalists and political propagandists) influence what become the accepted records of human experience. Is there, he asks, even such a thing as 'objective' history? The depth of Cohen's inquiry and the delight he takes in his subjects includes the practitioners of what he calls 'Bad History,' those thieves of history who twist reality to glorify themselves and conceal their or their country's behaviour. Cohen investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest historical thinkers to discover the agendas that informed their views of the world, and which in so many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history-writing, when such an idea seemed itself revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, MAKING HISTORY abounds in captivating figures brought to vivid life, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, from Winston Churchill to Mary Beard. Rich in character, complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a unique exploration of both the aims and craft of history-making. It will lead us to think anew about our past and ourselves.

The vast majority of books on Buddhism describe the Buddha using the word enlightened, rather than awakened. This bias has resulted in Buddhism becoming generally perceived as the eponymous religion of enlightenment. Beyond Enlightenment is a sophisticated study of some of the underlying assumptions involved in the study of Buddhism (especially, but not exclusively, in the West). It investigates the tendency of most scholars to ground their study of Buddhism in these particular assumptions about the Buddha’s enlightenment and a particular understanding of religion, which is traced back through Western orientalists to the Enlightenment and the Protestant Reformation. Placing a distinct emphasis on Indian Buddhism, Richard Cohen adeptly creates a work that will appeal to those with an interest in Buddhism and India and also scholars of religion and history.

Buddhism, Religion, Modernity

Beyond Enlightenment

The Smooth River is the remarkable story of how a well-known public relations expert and her husband met her stage 4 pancreatic cancer head-on. With vigor and strength¬, they deployed all they and medicine had to offer. But, in contrast to narrow conventional approaches, the couple developed a far more expansive view of what strength means in response to a crisis for which there are no medical cures. They called this the Smooth River. This clear-eyed transcendent perspective was so vital that they wouldn't let anything disrupt it-not cancer's lethal march, not the strongest chemos and their failures to work, not the frequent episodes of severe pain, not how society expected them to think or act, not the process of dying itself. The Smooth River demonstrates how to treat one's life as bigger-and far more important- than any medical condition, any tragedy, any setback of any kind. With effusive warmth, refreshing candor and practical detail, it describes how to personalize Medical and Life Plans that affirm the value of a patient's being and guide their loved ones. Its invaluable lessons show how to face the possibility of dying with sanctity and comfort, to view it as an opportunity for personal growth, finding inspiration and intense beauty in the experience-in life itself. There are lessons in the Smooth River approach for everyone.

Finding Inspiration and Exquisite Beauty During Terminal Illness. Lessons from the Front Line.

The Smooth River

THE HISTORY MAKERS is an epic exploration of who writes about the past and how the biases of certain storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama -continue to influence our ideas about history (and about who we are) today.There are many stories we can spin about years gone by, but which accounts come to be told, and by whom? A single author can deeply shape our understanding through the prism of his or her own beliefs. Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses (such as the writers of the Bible, major novelists, dramatists, journalists and political propagandists) influence what become the accepted records of human experience. Is there, he asks, even such a thing as "objective" history? And what is it to call someone a historian in the first place?The depth of Cohen's inquiry and the delight he takes in his subjects - even the practitioners of what he calls "Bad History," those thieves of history who twist reality to glorify themselves and conceal their or their country's behaviour - make this an unusually authoritative and supremely entertaining volume.Cohen investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest historical thinkers to discover the agendas that informed their views of the world, and which in so many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history-writing, when such an idea seemed itself revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, THE HISTORY MAKERS abounds in captivating figures brought to vivid life, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, from Winston Churchill to Mary Beard. Rich in character, complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a unique exploration of both the aims and craft of history-making that will lead us to think anew about our past and ourselves.

2,500 Years of Who We Are

The History Makers

Everyone knows someone with a homosexual orientation: a neighbor, co-worker, relative or friend. "Coming Out Straight" sheds light on a long misunderstood subject. Questions such as what causes same-sex attractions and how one can transition from gay to straight are addressed. Illustrated by those who successfully transitioned, this book is engrossing, illuminating, and for many, an answer to their prayers. Although it may create controversy, it is destined to heal many lives - a loved one...or maybe yours!

Understanding and Healing Homosexuality

Coming Out Straight

Why do heterosexuals need to be healed? Why is there a 50% divorce rate? Why does research indicate that 33 to 73 percent of men and 26 to 70 percent of women are sexually unfaithful in marriage? Why are men and women getting hooked on porn, spending $4,000 a second? Why are more and more men being exposed for sexually abusing children, adolescents, and/or adults? Why does the USA, with 5% of the world's population, consume 80% of the world's opioids? Porn, affairs, and addictions are illegitimate attempts to meet legitimate needs for love. Are you looking for love? Longing to be held? Perhaps settling for sex instead? If you want to experience greater love in your life, Healing Heterosexuality: Time, Touch, and Talk (TTT) will provide you with the keys to fulfill your heart's desire. TTT has solutions that will change your life for good! Each of us needs to belong - family, friends, faith, work, and community. If you did not connect or securely attach with your primary caregivers in childhood, you may need more touch as an adolescent or adult. Perhaps you have used sex to fulfill those primal needs for connection. The problem is that sex never fulfills the basic need because it is that of a child, not an adolescent or adult. In fact, sex obstructs the very thing that you may be looking for - bonding, belonging, and just to be loved for who you are, not what you do, or how you look. All unwanted behaviors are driven by Unhealed Wounds and Unmet Love Needs. TTT will teach you how to heal your heart and create more loving, intimate relationships. TIME: Life-changing skills for your personal healing, family healing, and community healing. TOUCH: Essential exercises for healthy touch to transform your life and the lives of your loved ones. TALK: Communication skills to foster greater intimacy in your personal and professional relationships.

Time, Touch & Talk

Healing Heterosexuality

Coming Out Straight details author Richard Cohen's personal journey out of homosexuality, and also recounts his experiences over the past 25 years helping thousands of men and women resolve their unwanted same-sex attraction and fulfill their heterosexual potential. This book is engrossing, illuminating, and for many, an answer to prayer.

Richard Cohen

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