Best Selling Books by Robert Roper

A unique portrait of Vladimir Nabokov told through the lens of the years he spent in a land that enchanted him, America. The author of the immortal Lolita and Pale Fire, born to an eminent Russian family, conjures the apotheosis of the high modernist artist: cultured, refined-as European as they come. But Vladimir Nabokov, who came to America fleeing the Nazis, came to think of his time here as the richest of his life. Indeed, Nabokov was not only happiest here, but his best work flowed from his response to this exotic land. Robert Roper fills out this period in the writer''s life with charm and insight- covering Nabokov''s critical friendship with Edmund Wilson, his time at Cornell, his role at Harvard''s Museum of Comparative Zoology. But Nabokov in America finds its narrative heart in his serial sojourns into the wilds of the West, undertaken with his wife, Vera, and their son over more than a decade. Nabokov covered more than 200,000 miles as he indulged his other passion: butterfly collecting. Roper has mined fresh sources to bring detail to these journeys, and traces their significant influence in Nabokov''s work: on two-lane highways and in late-''40s motels and cafés, we feel Lolita draw near, and understand Nabokov''s seductive familiarity with the American mundane. Nabokov in America is also a love letter to U.S. literature, in Nabokov''s broad embrace of it from Melville to the Beats. Reading Roper, we feel anew the mountain breezes and the miles logged, the rich learning and the Romantic mind behind some of Nabokov''s most beloved books.

Robert Roper''s Fatal Mountaineer is a gripping look at Willi Unsoeld and the epic climbs that defined him--a classic narrative blending action with ethics, fame with tragedy, a man''s ambition with a father''s anguish. In 1963, Willi Unsoeld became an international hero for his conquest of the West Ridge of Everest. A charismatic professor of philosophy, Unsoeld was one of the greatest climbers of the twentieth century, a man whose raw physical power and casual fearlessness inspired a generation of adventurers. In 1976, during an expedition to Nanda Devi, the tallest peak in India, Unsoeld''s philosophy of spiritual growth through mortal risk was tragically tested. The outcome of that expedition continues to fuel one of the most fascinating debates in mountaineering history.

Walt Whitman''s work as a nurse to the wounded soldiers of the Civil War had a profound effect on the way he saw the world. Much less well known is the extraordinary record of his younger brother, George, who led his men in twenty-one major battles, almost to die in a Confederate prison camp as the fighting ended. Drawing on the searing letters that Walt, George, their mother Louisa, and their other brothers, wrote to each other during the conflict, and on new evidence and new readings of the great poet, Now the Drum of War chronicles the experience of an archetypal American family-from rural Long Island to working-class Brooklyn-enduring its own long crisis alongside the anguish of the nation. Robert Roper has constructed a powerful narrative about America''s greatest crucible, and a compelling story of our most original poet and one of our bravest soldiers. "Together, the brothers Whitman define the complementary aspects of a full human response to a catastrophe like the Civil War. One is on the side of nurturing and empathy, a lover-figure who becomes a tender friend or father; the other more in line with classical definitions of masculine virtue, a man who protects his fellow-fighters while resolutely destroying the enemy...The Whitmans did not arrive at their vocations independently, or out of nowhere; their family''s stalwartness in terrible trials, especially their mother''s, and their own continuing awareness of each other as the war darkened, year by year, for both of them, awoke in both a kind of greatness."

Join Nickelodeon''s Dora the Explorer as she visits the doctor for a checkup. Then flip the book over and follow her to the dentist. This 2-in-1 storybook is sure to entertain girls and boys ages 3-7 as it shows them there is nothing to worry about when making these regular and necessary visits.

In the midst of the Great Depression a small Western town slips further down into despair with the killing of a small lonesome boy who attempts to rob a jewelry store. The boy symbolizes the misery and despair of all of the town''s inhabitants until the arrival of "The Great Leonard", a magician who is manipulated by the town''s sub-rosa benefactor into playing the billiards game of his life, against himself, his self-doubt, and his almost total abandonment of life itself. The game fires the town with an excitement it has never known and involves all the citizens and the wonderful characters who play their part in this story of challenge, love, and magic.

"In this modern-day Lady Chatterley''s Lover, Robert Roper examines the nature of modern love - a subject as fresh and provocative today as when D. H. Lawrence startled and captivated audiences over half a century ago. In its exploration of the boundary between the privileged life and the laws of the heart, The Trespassers offers an intriguing look at contemporary society and creates a powerful vision of erotic love." "Catherine Mansure lives a leisured life on her husband''s vast property in the California mountains while her husband, Rick, once a legendary figure at Berkeley, supervises his family''s corporation. Rick develops a debilitating illness and distances himself from a marriage that has already lost its way. When Catherine''s acquaintance with Henry Bascomb, a musician who makes his living growing marijuana on Mansure land, turns unexpectedly into a love affair, she must weigh her love against the comforts of her social standing, the scandal of a divorce, and even the love of her son." "With its lush, masterly prose, The Trespassers is a powerful novel as unsettling as it is deeply moving. Robert Roper''s talent, hailed in the reviews of his earlier books, is evident here in this brilliant retelling of one of the great masterpieces of twentieth-century literature."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Explaining a child''s beginning, is sometimes difficult and considered taboo. Written from a Christian’s perspective, this book is an honest, eye opening and humorous, mother’s attempt to satisfy her daughter’s curiosity, of where babies come from?

Născut într-o familie rusă remarcabilă, Vladimir Nabokov a ajuns în America fugind din calea naziștilor și și-a amintit perioada petrecută aici drept cea mai împlinită a vieții sale. Într-adevăr, cele mai bune lucrări ale lui s-au născut din răspunsul său la poveștile acestui pământ. Cu farmec și profunzime, Robert Roper completează această perioadă din viața autorului: prietenia lui cu Edmund Wilson, timpul petrecut la Cornell, rolul său la Muzeul Harvard de Zoologie Comparativă. Dar cartea își găsește nucleul narativ în călătoriile lui Nabokov și ale familiei sale în Vest. Roper a cercetat noi surse pentru a găsi detalii despre aceste călătorii și urmărește influența lor semnificativă în opera lui Nabokov: pe autostrăzile cu două benzi și în motelurile și cafenelele de la sfârșitul anilor 1940, simțim cum se schițează Lolita și înțelegem familiaritatea seducătoare a lui Nabokov cu viața cotidiană a Americii. Fascinant... Robert Roper reușește să aducă argumente convingătoare privind rolul esențial pe care l-a jucat America atât în crearea Lolitei, cât și în configurarea carierei ulterioare a lui Nabokov. The New York Times

"These ten interlinked stories, set in California and seen through the lens of memory, chronicle the life of Abel Richards, a man who came of age in the late 1960s and witnessed much of the turmoil of the next decade: drugs, the "back to the earth" movement, experimentation with love and its permutations, a marriage not properly tended and allowed to founder. Set in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains and portrayed with Robert Roper''s keen eye and disciplined prose, the tales play powerfully on the themes of memory, desire, and regret and explore the relationship between the sexes with compassion and insight. Whether recalling a friend lost to drugs, a marriage slipping into disarray, or the communal life of the 1960s, with its sexual freedom and economic and emotional dependence on drugs, Roper tells these stories with an honesty and richness that vividly bring back to life one of our pivotal eras while subtly holding it up to the judgment of time. The collection concludes with a remarkable pair of stories about a son who first comes to Richards'' attention eighteen years after his birth. Cuervo Tales is a marvelous achievement by a writer in full command of his material: unflinching, evocative, deeply moving. It will be enjoyed as much for its forceful storytelling as for its powerful portrayal of a period now as distant as the mountains of Atlantis."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"Born in 1916, Robert Roper tells his experience of growing up in the Southern Appalachian foothills, serving in the U.S. Army during WWII and viewing many more long past events"--Page 4 of cover.

Professor Anthony Landau, renowned epidemiologist, returns to his home in the Berkeley Hills to find a woman, a former scientific colleague, naked and quite dead in his bed. Her death sets in motion a chain of events-and murders-that will have the locals terrified, UC Berkeley''s academics pointing fingers, the cops under pressure to solve the crimes, the tabloid press crying for blood, and Landau as everyone''s number-one pick for serial killer of the year. Robert Roper, the author of THE SAVAGE PROFESSOR, has been called, "an authentic American voice" (Newsweek) and "a major talent, clearly a master of disguises and the telling detail, a writer with a clear but perfectly eccentric vision" (USA Today). Of his previous book THE TRESPASSERS, The New Yorker wrote: "A novel about the regenerative potential of sexual passion . . . an exquisite novel that explores the dream states of pleasure with a captivating assurance."

The author of the immortal Lolita and Pale Fire, born to an eminent Russian family, conjures the apotheosis of the high modernist artist: cultured, refined-as European as they come. But Vladimir Nabokov, who came to America fleeing the Nazis, came to think of his time here as the richest of his life. Indeed, Nabokov was not only happiest here, but his best work flowed from his response to this exotic land. Robert Roper fills out this period in the writer''s life with charm and insight- covering Nabokov''s critical friendship with Edmund Wilson, his time at Cornell, his role at Harvard''s Museum of Comparative Zoology. But Nabokov in America finds its narrative heart in his serial sojourns into the wilds of the West, undertaken with his wife, Vera, and their son over more than a decade. Nabokov covered more than 200,000 miles as he indulged his other passion: butterfly collecting. Roper has mined fresh sources to bring detail to these journeys, and traces their significant influence in Nabokov''s work: on two-lane highways and in late-''40s motels and cafes, we feel Lolita draw near, and understand Nabokov''s seductive familiarity with the American mundane. Nabokov in America is also a love letter to U.S. literature, in Nabokov''s broad embrace of it from Melville to the Beats. Reading Roper, we feel anew the mountain breezes and the miles logged, the rich learning and the Romantic mind behind some of Nabokov''s most beloved books.

Dora''s teacher has to get to school before the students do, but her bicycle just got a flat tire. Can Dora and Boots help their teacher get to school in time?

Dora and her pals try to reach the library before it closes. Can Backpack help?

A young mountaineer in love with another climber faces the ultimate test of her life in the blue ice of the Himalayas.