Now, for the first time, the works of America's supreme poet of the imagination are collected in one authoritative volume.

    In this exuberantly praised book — a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner — David Foster Wallace brings to nonfiction the same curiosity, hilarity, and exhilarating verbal facility that has delighted readers of his fiction, including the bestselling Infinite Jest.

    The four group members are as different as the seasons, yet they all share a love of one another. Yolanda, a media consultant, keeps it going on with a no-nonsense attitude and independence that are balanced by the theatrics of Riley, a former marketing executive whose marriage has reduced her to a "kept woman with kids." Computer engineer Dwight's anger at the world is offset by the compassion of Leland, a gay psychiatrist whose clients make him question why God ever invented sex.But after five years, the once-strong bonds of friendship are weakening, and the group must handle challenges of work, lost love, and a stranger in their midst. As the group members confront their true feelings toward each other, resentments and long-held secrets surface, and the stability of the group begins to disintegrate. Is their past friendship strong enough to survive the future?

    It is from this good-hearted family that Frances is abducted during the Revolutionary war.As the child's terror subsides, she is slowly drawn into the sacred work and beliefs of her adoptive mother and of all the women of these Eastern tribes. Frances becomes Maconakwa, the Little Bear Woman of the Miami Indians. Then, long after the Indians are beaten and their last hope, Tecumseh, is killed, the Slocums hear word of their long-lost daughter and head out to Indiana to meet their beloved Frances. But for Maconakwa, it is a moment of truth, the test of whether her heart is truly a red one.

    (Adults may know him as a frequent commentator on National Public Radio, essayist, book reviewer, and the author of The Afterlife Diet). Well over a million copies of his books have been sold win the first, The Terrible Roar, was published in 1970.

    Only eight years after serving out a prison sentence for murder, Socrates Fortlow lives in a tiny, two-room Watts apartment, where he cooks on a hot plate, scavenges for bottles, drinks and wrestles with his demons. Struggling to control a seemingly boundless rage--as well as the power of his massive "rock-breaking" hands--Socrates must find a way to live an honourable life as a black man on the margins of a white world, a task which takes every ounce of self-control he has. Easy Rawlins fans might initially find themselves disappointed by the absence of a mystery to unravel. But it's a gripping inner drama that unfolds over the pages of these stories, as Socrates comes to grips with the chaos, poverty and violence around him. He tries to get and keep a job delivering groceries; takes in a young street kid named Darryl, who has his own murder to hide; and helps drive out the neighbourhood crack dealer. Throughout, Mosley captures the rhythms of Watts life in prose both lyrical and hard-edged, resulting in a haunting look at a life bounded by lust, violence, fear and a ruthlessly unsentimental moral vision.

    The eleven novels in The Library of America’s adventurous two-volume collection taps deep roots in the American literary imagination, exploring themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder, and the disintegrating psyche. With visionary and often subversive force they create a dark and violent mythology out of the most commonplace elements of modern life.James M. Cain’s pioneering novel of murder and adultery along the California highway, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), shocked contemporaries with its laconic toughness and fierce sexuality.Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) uses truncated rhythms and a unique narrative structure to turn its account of a Hollywood dance marathon into an unforgettable evocation of social chaos and personal desperation.In Thieves Like Us (1937), Edward Anderson vividly brings to life the dusty roads and back-country hideouts where a fugitive band of Oklahoma outlaws plays out its destiny.The Big Clock (1946), an ingenious novel of pursuit and evasion by the poet Kenneth Fearing, is set by contrast in the dense and neurotic inner world of a giant publishing corporation under the thumb of a warped and ultimately murderous chief executive.William Lindsay Gresham’s controversial Nightmare Alley (1946), a ferocious psychological portrait of a charismatic carnival hustler, creates an unforgettable atmosphere of duplicity, corruption, and self-destruction.I Married a Dead Man (1948), a tale of switched identity set in the anxious suburbs, is perhaps the most striking novel of Cornell Woolrich, who found in the techniques of the gothic thriller the means to express an overpowering sense of personal doom.Disturbing, poetic, anarchic, punctuated by terrifying bursts of rage and paranoia and powerfully evocative of the lost and desperate sidestreets of American life, these are underground classics now made widely and permanently available.

    Thompson. In letters to a Who's Who of luminaries from Norman Mailer to Charles Kuralt, Tom Wolfe to Lyndon Johnson, William Styron to Joan Baez—not to mention his mother, the NRA, and a chain of newspaper editors—Thompson vividly catches the tenor of the times in 1960s America and channels it all through his own razor-sharp perspective. Passionate in their admiration, merciless in their scorn, and never anything less than fascinating, the dispatches of The Proud Highway offer an unprecedented and penetrating gaze into the evolution of the most outrageous raconteur/provocateur ever to assault a typewriter.

    Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, major caffeine abuse. We follow the mismatch'd pair—one rollicking, the other depressive; one Gothic, the other pre-Romantic—from their first journey together to the Cape of Good Hope, to pre-Revolutionary America and back, through the strange yet redemptive turns of fortune in their later lives, on a grand tour of the Enlightenment's dark hemisphere, as they observe and participate in the many opportunities for insanity presented them by the Age of Reason.

    Now, for the first time, Carlin has produced a book of original humor pieces, Brain Droppings. Filled with thoughts, musings, questions, lists, beliefs, curiousities, monologues, assertions, assumptions, and other verbal ordeals, Brain Droppings is infectiously funny. Also included are two timeless bonus items from the past, "A Place for Your Stuff" and "Baseball-Football." Readers will get an inside look into Carlin's mind, and they won't be disappointed by what they find: I buy stamps by mail. It works OK until I run out of stamps. What year did Jesus Christ think it was? A tree: first you chop it down, then you chop it up. Have you ever noticed the lawyer is always smiling more than the client? I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed. If you ever have chicken at lunch and chicken at dinner, do you ever wonder if the two chickens knew each other?

    Includes his classics "Mending Wall, " "Birches, " and "The Road Not Taken, " as well as poems less famous but equally great.POEMS INCLUDED:ForewordThe PastureInto My OwnGhost HouseMy November GuestLove and a QuestionA Late WalkStarsStorm FearWind and Window FlowerFlower-GatheringRose PogoniasWaitingIn a ValeA Dream PangIn NeglectThe Vantage PointMowingGoing for WaterThe Trial by ExistenceThe Tuft of FlowersPan with UsA Line-Storm SongOctoberMy ButterflyReluctanceMending WallThe Death of the Hired ManThe MountainA Hundred CollarsHome BurialThe Black CottageBlueberriesA Servant to ServantsAfter Apple-PickingThe CodeThe Generations of MenThe HousekeeperThe FearThe Wood-PileGood HoursThe Road Not TakenChristmas TreesAn Old Man’s Winter NightA Patch of Old SnowIn the Home StretchThe TelephoneMeeting and PassingHyla BrookThe Oven BirdBond and FreeBirchesPea BrushPutting in the SeedA Time to TalkThe Cow in Apple TimeAn EncounterRange-FindingThe Hill WifeThe BonfireA Girl’s GardenThe Exposed Nest“Out, Out –”Brown’s DescentThe Gum-GathererThe Line-GangThe Vanishing RedSnowThe Sound of the TreesA Star in a Stone-BoatThe Census-TakerMapleThe Ax-HelveThe GrindstoneWild GrapesThe Pauper Witch of GraftonFire and IceMisgivingSnow DustFor Once, Then, SomethingThe OnsetGood-by and Keep ColdThe Need of Being Versed in Country ThingsFragmentary BlueThe Flower Boat

    Seuss’s most popular books: ‘The Cat in the Hat’, ‘The Cat in the Hat Comes Back’ and ‘Dr. Seuss’s ABC’. ‘The Cat in the Hat’When the Cat in the Hat steps in on the mat, Sally and her brother are in for a roller-coaster ride of havoc and mayhem! The cat can rescue them from a dull rainy day, but it’ll mean lots of spills along the way.‘The Cat in the Hat Comes Back’When the Cat in the Hat once more steps into the lives of Sally and her brother, he’s soon up to his old tricks. He turns the house upside down, and the snow pink, ably assisted by a team of tiny helpers that he keeps in his hat!‘Dr. Seuss’s ABC’“Big B, little b, what begins with B?Baby, barber, bubbles and a bumblebee!”Children can have lots of fun learning about big and little letters.

    The Complete Stories of Bernard Malamud brings together all of Malamud's published stories--from the classic early story "The Magic Barrel," in which he refashioned the American short story in the Yiddish-infected idiom of his boyhood, to later works such as "Rembrandt's Hat" and "Alma Redeemed,' which dramatize the relationship between life and art with matchless intensity and dark comedy. These fifty-three stories are full of the searching eloquence that characterizes this beloved American writer.Contents:Armistice --Spring rain --The grocery store --Benefit performance --The place is different now --Steady customer --The literary life of Laban Goldman --The cost of living --The prison --The first seven years --The death of me --The bill --The loan --A confession of murder --Riding pants --The girl of my dreams --The magic barrel --The mourners --Angel Levine --A summer's reading --Take pity --The elevator --An apology --The last Mohican --The lady of the lake --Behold the key --The maid's shoes --Idiots first --Still life --Suppose a wedding --Life is better than death --The jewbird --Black is my favorite color --Naked nude --The German refugee --A choice of profession --A pimp's revenge --Man in the drawer --My son the murderer --Pictures of the artist --An exorcism --Glass blower of Venice --God's wrath --Talking horse --The letter --The silver crown --Notes from a lady at a dinner party --In retirement --Rembrandt's hat --A wig --The model --A lost grave --Zora's noise --In Kew Gardens --Alms redeemed.

    Geniuses—Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini—produced some of the landmark artistic achievements of all time in this form. With Professor Robert Greenberg to show you how, you can learn to understand, appreciate—even to love—opera in just 24 hours of lectures that are a pleasure to hear.With the knowledge of opera from this course, you will understand how music has the power to reveal truths beyond the spoken word; how opera is a unique marriage of words and music in which the whole is far greater than its parts. You will learn the reasons for opera's enduring popularity. And you will be able to explore in great depth the extraordinary and compelling world of opera.Professor Greenberg is to the lecture what Mozart was to opera. Brilliant, irreverent toward his subject and yet awed by it, he is ingenious in his approach to ensure that his work will have its intended effect on the listener.The music is transcendently beautiful. In this course, you will listen to some of the most extraordinary artistic works of all time.The history of opera is traced from its beginning in the early 17th century to around 1924. The lectures examine landmark operas; musical, cultural, and social developments that influenced opera's growth; and the influence of national languages and cultures on opera.Part I: The Full Flower and Its OriginsThe first eight lectures are foundational. You examine the origins of opera and the adaptations of other musical forms that allowed opera to achieve its full effects, first accomplished in Monteverdi's Orfeo of 1607.But Professor Greenberg does not hide the result while waiting on history to get us there. The course opens with one of the most powerful moments in opera—the dramatically loaded aria "Nessun dorma" ("No one shall sleep") from Giacomo Puccini's Turandot.In Turandot, you are exposed to opera's unique incorporation of soliloquy, dialogue, scenery, action, and continuous music into an incredibly expressive and exciting whole.This famous aria shows us the power of the composer—the power of creating music that goes beyond the words of the libretto to express thoughts and feelings that cannot be expressed in words.The study continues with a discussion of how music reveals character and the unconscious state. You are introduced to operatic archetypes such as Figaro and Carmen.You examine how the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture contributed to the riches of the Renaissance. You see the evolution of the madrigal, a form that was ultimately rejected in favor of a more expressive vocal medium: early opera.Part I of the course concludes with an analysis of the first successful attempt to combine words and music into musical drama, Monteverdi's Orfeo of 1607.Part II: The Aria, the Golden Age, Opera Seria, Opera BuffaRecitative, the essence of Monteverdi's style, made music subservient to words, but because of its forward-driving nature, recitative cannot express personal reflection.You learn how the invention of the aria gave opera composers a powerful tool to stop the dramatic action for characters' moments of self-reflection.Gluck's reforms and his Orfeo ed Euridice of 1762 are addressed as the starting point for the modern opera repertory. The explosion of operas in the Golden Age–Dark Age of opera is discussed. You learn how different voice types are assigned different roles, and how this has varied by culture.The rise of opera seria and its characteristics are discussed, along with an analysis of the second act of Mozart's Idomeneo—opera seria transcendent.You examine the development of opera buffa, from its origins in the popular folklore of the Commedia dell'Arte to its eventual replacement of opera seria. Mozart's brilliant The Marriage of Figaro is discussed as one of the greatest contributions to the opera buffa genre.Part III: Rossini and Verdi: The Development of French OperaYou see how the Italian language and culture gave rise to the bel canto style, with its comic plots, one-dimensional characters, appealing melodies, and florid melodic embellishments.Dr. Greenberg reveals how highly pressurized the business of opera was in the 18th century. Rossini once remarked, "In my time, all the impresarios of Italy were bald by 30." You are introduced to Rossini's The Barber of Seville of 1816 as the quintessential bel canto opera.You learn how Giuseppi Verdi broke the bel canto mold. He dominated Italian opera for over half a century by virtue of his lyricism, his emphasis on human emotions and psychological insight, and his use of the orchestra and parlante to drive the dramatic action and maintain musical continuity.Verdi's Otello is discussed as one of the greatest operas of all time.You next study French opera and why it became a distinctly different genre from Italian opera. Nineteenth-century French opera—grand opera, opéra comique, and lyric opera—are three distinctive French genres. You'll hear why in Act 2 of Bizet's dramatically powerful Carmen .Part IV: Wagner, Strauss, PucciniYou see how German singspiel, a play with music, grew from humble origins as a low-class entertainment to high art with Mozart's The Rescue from the Harem (1782) and The Magic Flute (1791). You learn how Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz established 19th-century German opera.You then study Richard Wagner: his personal beliefs, musical theories, and operatic innovations. Wagner turned to the ancient Greek ideal for inspiration, and from it he conceived the idea of an all-encompassing artwork, or music drama, in which the orchestra plays the role of a purveyor of unspoken truths. Dr. Greenberg cites Wagner's Tristan und Isolde as the most influential composition of the 19th century, next to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.Richard Strauss and his controversial opera Salome exemplifies late Romantic German opera.You examine Russian opera and nationalism. The late development of Russian opera is outlined from Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila to Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. You see how the Russian language shaped the vocal style of Russian opera.The course concludes with an overview of opera verismo, a 19th- and 20th-century genre that favors depictions of the darker side of the human condition; a transcendent example of it is in the pivotal second act of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca.The essence of opera is debated as you hear part of a scene from Richard Strauss's Capriccio. Is it words, or is it music? It is an indefinable combination of both, with the whole greater than the parts.

    In addition to his Nobel lecture, the volume includes essays on the condition of exile, the nature of history, the art of reading, and the idea of the poet as an inveterate Don Giovanni, as well as a homage to Marcus Aurelius and an appraisal of the case of the double agent Kim Philby (the last two were selected for inclusion in the annual Best American Essays volume). The title essay is a consideration of the poetry of Robert Frost, and the book also includes a fond appreciation of Thomas Hardy, a "Letter to Horace", a close reading of Rilke's poem "Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes", and a memoir of Stephen Spender. Among the other essays are Mr. Brodsky's open letter to Czech President Vaclav Havel and his "immodest proposal" for the future of poetry, an address he delivered while serving as U.S. Poet Laureate.

    Historian and novelist Thomas Fleming's gripping narrative captures the high drama of the revolutionary years and the unyielding courage and political genius of the men and women who imagined a new set of political possibilities for mankind - laying the foundation for the identity and character of the American people in the process. The companion volume to the PBS television series of the same name, Liberty! is illustrated with more than 200 full color paintings and photographs, illuminating the revolutionary period as never before. Most important, Liberty! traces the evolution of the ideals that inspired a generation of Americans to struggle against Britain - then the most powerful nation in the world - to establish the free society and democratic system that is so inherently and uniquely American. A remarkable work that surges with human drama, it is a book that every American family will read and treasure for decades to come.

    Denise Duhamel has apparently obsessed for months about the Barbie doll phenomenon: all the poems have to do with the "what if " of Barbie attempting to fit into the real world. For example, what if Barbie were codependent? What if Barbie were in therapy? What if she were a religious fanatic? Do you know why Barbie and Ken don't dress in underwear? Why Barbie joined a 12 Step Program? How can you sleep nights without delving into the mysteries of this pop culture darling with the plastic eyelashes?

    Over the course of a single convoluted week, he threatens to execute a duck, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, discovers that his secretary writes better fiction than he does, suspects his wife of having an affair with his dean, and finally confronts his philandering elderly father, the one-time king of American Literary Theory, at an abandoned amusement park.Such is the canvas of Richard Russo's Straight Man, a novel of surpassing wit, poignancy, and insight. As he established in his previous books -- Mohawk, The Risk Pool, and Nobody's Fool -- Russo is unique among contemporary authors for his ability to flawlessly capture the soul of the wise guy and the heart of a difficult parent. In Hank Devereaux, Russo has created a hero whose humor and identification with the absurd are mitigated only by his love for his family, friends, and, ultimately, knowledge itself.Unforgettable, compassionate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Straight Man cements Richard Russo's reputation as one of the master storytellers of our time.From the Hardcover edition.

    The poems are full of melancholic beauty whether in the disturbing images of death and events beyond the grave described in 'The Raven' and 'Lenore', or in the hypnotic fantasy of works such as 'The Bells', 'The City in the Sea' and 'Annabel Lee'.Possessed of a powerful, richly inventive imagination, Edgar Allan Poe explored the darkest corners of the human psyche and is recognized as one of the first writers to offer a genuine American voice.

    Truman truly knew everyone, and now the people who knew him best tell his remarkable story to bestselling author and literary lion, George Plimpton.Using the oral-biography style that made his Edie (edited with Jean Stein) a bestseller, George Plimpton has blended the voices of Capote's friends, lovers, and colleagues into a captivating and narrative. Here we see the entire span of Capote's life, from his Southern childhood, to his early days in New York; his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms; his highly active love life; the groundbreaking excitement of In Cold Blood, the first "nonfiction novel"; his years as a jet-setter; and his final days of flagging inspiration, alcoholism, and isolation. All his famous friends and enemies are here: C.Z. Guest, Katharine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Huston, William F. Buckley, Jr., and dozens of others.Full of wonderful stories, startlingly intimate and altogether fascinating, this is the most entertaining account of Truman Capote's life yet, as only the incomparable George Plimpton could have done it.

    Clerks was the independent film success story of 1994, winning the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critics Week Award at Cannes, and the Filmmakers' Trophy at Sundance. Set in the everyday world of a New Jersey QuickStop and its adjacent video store, the film revolves around the obsessions, love lives, and friendships of the clerks. Janet Maslin of the New York Time called it "a buoyant comedy...and exuberant display of ingenuity," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times raves, "Clerks is boisterous and irreverently funny...an example of what is best and most hopeful about the American independent film scene."

    Photographer, filmmaker, novelist, poet, and composer, Gordon Parks is one of the most inspiring success stories of our time. Now in a trade paperback edition, Half Past Autumn gives us the first complete retrospective of his photographic career, along with his own account of his amazing life. Half Past Autumn chronicles Parks's remarkable documentary images for the Farm Security Administration, his hard-hitting work for Life magazine, elegant fashion photos for Vogue, insightful portraits of notables, and his more recent abstract color images. With engaging anecdotal text that gives us the stories behind the images, this is an inspiring memoir of Parks's life and his struggle against racism.

    Scenes of love and desire, friendship, ambition, life in foreign cities and New York, are unforgettably rendered here in the unique style for which James Salter is widely admired.Burning the Days captures a singular life, beginning with a Manhattan boyhood and then, satisfying his father's wishes, graduation from West Point, followed by service in the Air Force as a pilot. In some of the most evocative pages ever written about flying, Salter describes the exhilaration and terror of combat as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, scenes that are balanced by haunting pages of love and a young man's passion for women.After resigning from the Air Force, Salter begins a second life, becoming a writer in the New York of the 1960s. Soon films beckon. There are vivid portraits of actors, directors, and producers--Polanski, Robert Redford, and others. Here also, more important, are writers who were influential, some by their character, like Irwin Shaw, others because of their taste and knowledge.Ultimately Burning the Days is an illumination of what it is to be a man, and what it means to become a writer.Only once in a long while--Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory or Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa--does a memoir of such extraordinary clarity and power appear. Unconventional in form, Burning the Days is a stunning achievement by the writer The Washington Post Book World said "inhabits the same rarefied heights as Flannery O'Connor, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams and John Cheever" --a rare and unforgettable book.

    Originally published with Current 93's 1997 album of the same name.

    The unlikely crew came from every corner of the young nation: soldiers from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and Kentucky, French Canadian boatmen, several sons of white fathers and Indian mothers, a slave named York, and eventually a Shoshone Indian woman, Sacagawea, who brought along her infant son.Together they would cross the continent, searching for the fabled Northwest Passage that had been the great dream of explorers since the time of Columbus. Along the way they would face incredible hardship, disappointment, and danger; record in their journals hundreds of animals and plants previously unknown to science; encounter a dizzying diversity of Indian cultures; and, most of all, share in one of America's most enduring adventures. Their story may have passed into national mythology, but never before has their experience been rendered as vividly, in words and pictures, as in this marvelous homage by Dayton Duncan. Plentiful excerpts from the journals kept by the two captains and four enlisted men convey the raw emotions, turbulent spirits, and constant surprises of the explorers, who each day confronted the unknown with fresh eyes. An elegant preface by Ken Burns, as well as contributions from Stephen E. Ambrose, William Least Heat-Moon, and Erica Funkhouser, enlarge upon important threads in Duncan's narrative, demonstrating the continued potency of events that took place almost two centuries ago. And a wealth of paintings, photographs, journal sketches, maps, and film images from the PBS documentary lends this historic, nation-redefining milestone a vibrancy and immediacy to which no American will be immune.

     Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer. Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it. The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain," and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.

    Ever since this declaration, he has been at the forefront of a radical critique of the nature of art in our time. After the End of Art presents Danto's first full-scale reformulation of his original insight, showing how, with the eclipse of abstract expressionism, art has deviated irrevocably from the narrative course that Vasari helped define for it in the Renaissance. Moreover, he leads the way to a new type of criticism that can help us understand art in a posthistorical age where, for example, an artist can produce a work in the style of Rembrandt to create a visual pun, and where traditional theories cannot explain the difference between Andy Warhol's Brillo Box and the product found in the grocery store. Here we are engaged in a series of insightful and entertaining conversations on the most relevant aesthetic and philosophical issues of art, conducted by an especially acute observer of the art scene today. Originally delivered as the prestigious Mellon Lectures on the Fine Arts, these writings cover art history, pop art, "people's art," the future role of museums, and the critical contributions of Clement Greenberg--who helped make sense of modernism for viewers over two generations ago through an aesthetics-based criticism. Tracing art history from a mimetic tradition (the idea that art was a progressively more adequate representation of reality) through the modern era of manifestos (when art was defined by the artist's philosophy), Danto shows that it wasn't until the invention of Pop art that the historical understanding of the means and ends of art was nullified. Even modernist art, which tried to break with the past by questioning the ways of producing art, hinged on a narrative. Traditional notions of aesthetics can no longer apply to contemporary art, argues Danto. Instead he focuses on a philosophy of art criticism that can deal with perhaps the most perplexing feature of contemporary art: that everything is possible.

    In each of these stories, Davis reveals an empathic, sometimes shattering understanding of human relationships.

    Here are reflections on cowboys real and fake, tractor-driving lessons, outhouses, and the uses of baling wire; here are ranch marriages, enduring and not; family legacies; loss and renewal. Westerners will find their friends and neighbors in these pages; others will find a vivid portrait of the women of a region all too often mythologized.

    Here, through the lives of Mother Africa's many daughters, we come to understand the real meaning of roots: the captive Proud Mary, who has been savagely punished for refusing to relinquish her child to slavery; Earlene, who witnesses her father's murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan; Big Momma, a modern-day matriarch who can make a woman of a girl; proud and sassy Cinnamon Brown, whose wild abandon hides a bitter loss; and smart, ambitious Alma, who is torn between the love of a man and the song of her soul.In The River Where Blood Is Born, the seen and unseen worlds are seamlessly joined--the spirit realms where the great river goddess and ancestor mothers watch over the lives of their descendants, both the living and those not yet born. Stringing beads of destiny, they work to lead one daughter back to her source. But what must Alma sacrifice to honor the River Mother's call?

    Dr. Upledger's colorful case histories explain the path that led to his discovery of this exciting medical modality. The book contains a play-by-play account of the development of CranioSacral Therapy, SomatoEmotional Release, and other concepts and techniques. It's recommended reading for therapists, patients, caregivers, and anyone interested in understanding how therapy performed on the craniosacral system can improve the quality of life.

    

    The next day, a dazed and confused Pete Dayton is found in Madison's cell. Dayton has no memory of how he came to be there. Madison has gone missing. What follows may be reality or it may be part of a highly organized hallucination that Fred Madison is undergoing. Lost Highway refuses to yield its secrets readily. It communicates, not just through words, but through images and - most of all - through the mental states these words and images conjure up.

    A group of wily raccoons have come to town and have bought great amounts of stuffing and sage from the local market. Then Babe, the town's prize rooster, goes missing. Could it be that the raccoons have a most appalling feast in mind? Caleb, part-time private investigator, determines he will discover the perpetrators of the dastardly deed, and the result is a thrilling rescue involving a hot-air balloon. Wittily told and superbly illustrated by the inimitable Tasha Tudor, this will be a welcome addition to the paperback shelves.

    Present-day American Sign Language (ASL) carries on that tradition. Like any living language, it continues to grow and change to meet the communication needs of an ever more diverse religious population. This comprehensive guide, newly revised, updated, and expanded, gives you all the vocabulary you need to communicate effectively in any religious setting. From Alleluia to Zizith, more than 750 signs and their specific meanings Large, clear, upper-torso illustrations that show the corresponding movements of hands, body, and face Easy-to-follow instructions to help you master the art of expressing signs A complete index for quick access to any sign With an essential section of religious "name signs," the addition of signs for the Muslim faith, and an expanded selection of favorite verses, prayers, and blessings, this book is an indispensable resource for signers of all denominations. Written with expertise by an educator and author associated with the field of deafness for more than thirty years, it makes communicating by ASL in a religious setting simple and easy, no matter your level of experience.

    . . ."--Psalm 84:5, NASB What a wonderful opportunity you have as a Christian in this modern age to open up the Bible and, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, glean its rich truths for yourself. Your vitality as a Christian depends on doing just that. For only through consistent Bible study and prayer do you gain the spiritual strength to navigate each day with wisdom, grace, and integrity. Offering significantly more than the typical thematic or topical anecdotes of some other devotionals, the in-depth Bible exposition of this daily study gives you a firmer grasp on many of the great passages of Scripture--passages that speak at length of Christian character, the meaning behind Christ's death and resurrection, and how we benefit from life's trials. After a year in God's Word with this book as your companion, you will find that both your walk with Christ and your faith have grown stronger--all because you committed yourself to a daily, in-depth study of the Scriptures, and to learning more about the God who is your Strength.

    From his early paintings and assemblages, which built upon the work of Jasper Johns and Joseph Cornell, to his set designs for LeRoi Jone's The Dutchman and Frank O'Hara's The General Returns from One Place to Another; from his comic book collaborations with various poets, C Comics and C Comics 2, to his later drawing, collage, painting, and assemblage work, Brainard exemplified the link between avant-garde art, writing, and theater that defined the New York School. In addition to a checklist and bibliographies of work by and about Brainard, this exhibition catalogue includes the artist's published and unpublished writings, as well as interviews and letters. Also included are essays by John Ashbery, Carter Ratcliff, and Constance Lewallen, who chronicles Joe Brainard's formative years in Oklahoma and move to New York City, his involvement with Pop Art, assemblage and painting, and his literary and artistic associations.

    Scott DeVeaux takes a central chapter in the history of jazz—the birth of bebop—and shows how our contemporary ideas of this uniquely American art form flow from that pivotal moment. At the same time, he provides an extraordinary view of the United States in the decades just prior to the civil rights movement. DeVeaux begins with an examination of the Swing Era, focusing particularly on the position of African American musicians. He highlights the role played by tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, a "progressive" committed to a vision in which black jazz musicians would find a place in the world commensurate with their skills. He then looks at the young musicians of the early 1940s, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, and links issues within the jazz world to other developments on the American scene, including the turmoil during World War II and the pervasive racism of the period. Throughout, DeVeaux places musicians within the context of their professional world, paying close attention to the challenges of making a living as well as of making good music. He shows that bebop was simultaneously an artistic movement, an ideological statement, and a commercial phenomenon. In drawing from the rich oral histories that a living tradition provides, DeVeaux's book resonates with the narratives of individual lives. While The Birth of Bebop is a study in American cultural history and a critical musical inquiry, it is also a fitting homage to bebop and to those who made it possible.

    Based on her popular column, which ran in lesbian and gay periodicals across the country, this series of fictional comedy/adventures stars femme author Leslea Newman and her beloved butch, Flash.

    Tender  probes sexuality, spirituality, emotion, child abuse, mother hatred, and the physical and psychological ravages of violence. These poems are raw and upsetting in subject matter, yet extremely readable.

    Written in what DeLillo calls "super-omniscience" the sentences sweep from young Cotter Martin as he jumps the gate to the press box, soars over the radio waves, runs out to the diamond, slides in on a fast ball, pops into the stands where J. Edgar Hoover is sitting with a drunken Jackie Gleason and a splenetic Frank Sinatra, and learns of the Soviet Union's second detonation of a nuclear bomb. It's an absolutely thrilling literary moment. When Bobby Thomson hits Branca's pitch into the outstretched hand of Cotter—the "shot heard around the world"—and Jackie Gleason pukes on Sinatra's shoes, the events of the next few decades are set in motion, all threaded together by the baseball as it passes from hand to hand."It's all falling indelibly into the past," writes DeLillo, a past that he carefully recalls and reconstructs with acute grace. Jump from Giants Stadium to the Nevada desert in 1992, where Nick Shay, who now owns the baseball, reunites with the artist Kara Sax. They had been brief and unlikely lovers 40 years before, and it is largely through the events, spinoffs, and coincidental encounters of their pasts that DeLillo filters the Cold War experience. He believes that "global events may alter how we live in the smallest ways," and as the book steps back in time to 1951, over the following 800-odd pages, we see just how those events alter lives. This reverse narrative allows the author to strip away the detritus of history and pop culture until we get to the story's pure elements: the bomb, the baseball, and the Bronx. In an epilogue as breathless and stunning as the prologue, DeLillo fast-forwards to a near future in which ruthless capitalism, the Internet, and a new, hushed faith have replaced the Cold War's blend of dread and euphoria.Through fragments and interlaced stories—including those of highway killers, artists, celebrities, conspiracists, gangsters, nuns, and sundry others—DeLillo creates a fragile web of connected experience, a communal Zeitgeist that encompasses the messy whole of five decades of American life, wonderfully distilled.

    The eloquent wit and laughter of African American women are presented here in all their written and spoken manifestations: autobiographies, novels, essays, poems, speeches, comic routines, proverbial sayings, cartoons, mimeographed sheets, and folk tales. The chapters proceed thematically, covering the church, love, civil rights, motherly advice, and much more.

    On the eve of his fortieth birthday, Gabe takes his own history in hand in an attempt to reconcile a family shattered by his betrayal of his older brother, Michael. As Gabe contends with a host of personal demons, he recounts his lifelong love for his brother's wife, Myra--whose own demons threaten to overwhelm all three of them.

    Oates tells the story of the coming of the American Civil War through the voices, and from the viewpoints, of 13 principal players in the drama, including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Nat Turner, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass. This unique approach shows the crucial role that perception of events played in the sectional hostilities that bore the United States irreversibly into civil war. In writing the monologues, Oates draws on the actual words of Ills speakers and simulates how they would describe the crucial events in which they were the principal actors or witnesses. All the events and themes in the monologues adhere to historical record.The result is an exciting history that brings the personalities and events of the coming of the American Civil War vividly to life.

    The Faith is a beautifully written book that truly answers the question, "What is it that you Orthodox believe?" Perfect for inquires and study groups, high school age and up.

    J. Liebling filed with The New Yorker during the Second World War. The magazine sent Liebling to Paris in 1939, hoping that he could replicate in wartime France his brilliant reporting of New York life. Liebling succeeded triumphantly, concentrating on writing the individual soldier's story to illuminate the larger picture of the European theater of the war and the fight for what Liebling felt was the first priority of business: the liberation of his beloved France. The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.For a complete list of titles, see the inside of the jacket. Despite his ill health and bad eyesight, Liebling went on patrol, interviewed soldiers, fled Paris and returned after D-Day, was shot at in North Africa and bombed in the blitz in London. Into thischaos, as his biographer Raymond Sokolov comments, "he brought himself, a fiercely committed Francophile with a novelist's skill for crystallizing his day-to-day experiences into a profound chronicle of a 'world knocked down.' "

    Amy Gertsler's latest collection engages the reader with a sensibility that is by turns extravagant, wistful, erudite, playful, and profound. Love lies in wait in these poems, populated with such as deserters from circuses, recipes, and the scent of geraniums. Gerstler twines language into sublime confections of elegance and silliness, seeking support between progress and pathology.

    As the year 2000 approaches, millions wonder: what will happen; will the Lord come again? Many worry about the tribulations, predicted in the Book of Revelation.

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    This year, E. Annie Proulx's selection includes dazzling stories by Tobias Wolff, Donald Hall, Cynthia Ozick, Robert Stone, Junot Diaz, and T. C. Boyle as well as an array of stunning new talent. In her introduction, Proulx writes that beyond their strength and vigor, these stories achieve "a certain intangible feel for the depth of human experience, not uncommonly expressed through a kind of dry humor." As ever, this year's volume surprises and rewards.100 Distinguished Stories Citations, including How to Have Heart Disease (Without Really Trying), Jane Eaton Hamilton

    Offers powerful insight into the portrayal of romantic love by Jean Rhys, Clover Adams, Christina Stead, Willa Cather, Grace Paley, Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, and others.

    The resulting volume is guaranteed to shake the assumptions of readers of every pigmentation and political allegiance.   In What's Going On, McCall adds up the hidden costs of the stereotype of black athletic prowess, which tells African American teenagers that they can only succeed on the white man's terms. He introduces a fresh perspective to the debates on gangsta rap and sexual violence. He indicts the bigotry of white churches and the complacency of the black suburban middle class, celebrates the heroism of Muhammad Ali, and defends the truth-telling of Alice Walker. Engaging, provocative, and utterly fearless, here is a commentator to reckon with, addressing our most persistent divisions in a voice of stinging immediacy.

    He began writing it in 1953 as reading notes on Buddhism intended for his friend, poet Allen Ginsberg. As Kerouac's Buddhist study and meditation practice intensified, what had begun as notes evolved into a vast and all-encompassing work of nonfiction into which he poured his life, incorporating poems, haiku, prayers, journal entries, meditations, fragments of letters, ideas about writing, overheard conversations, sketches, blues, and more. The final manuscript, completed in 1956, was as visually complex as the writing: each page was unique, typed in patterns and interlocking shapes. The elaborate form which Kerouac so painstakingly gave the book on his manual typewriter is re-created in this typeset facsimile.

    On their shoulders rested the reputation and the profits of Ford, not to mention an investment of close to 3 billion dollars. This biting, insightful account by a seasoned journalist follows the 1996 Taurus from its conception as a clay model in Detroit to its birth in an Atlanta assembly plant to its public debut in a New Jersey dealership. Mary Walton, who was given unprecedented access to the Taurus team, chronicles brilliantly the clashes between designers and engineers, marketers and accountants, product guys and manufacturing guys to create a revealing portrait of the tension, the passions, and the pride that fuel the race to #1. "An engrossing drama . . . with fascinating insights into every aspect of the car's creation. . . . Walton does an admirable job of making the redesign of a car into a compelling human-interest story."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) "An engrossing, satisfying read."—Doron Levin, Philadelphia Inquirer (a Best Book of 1997) "Vivid and informative. . . . Consistently entertaining because it is engagingly written, this is the rare business book that is a page turner."—Keith Bradsher, New York Times Book Review

    Evocative and haunting, they capture what Carter calls the "little askew moments" that allow viewers to see beyond the surface reality.This book brings together seventy-five photographs chosen by Carter to represent the range of his work since the 1970s. Many of the images in this book have never been published before, while others come from Carter's previous books. A. D. Coleman's introduction traces the development of Carter's work and maps his affinities with other artists and writers who are strongly influenced by the sense of place. In his own words, Keith Carter describes his maturation as a self-taught photographer in his hometown of Beaumont, Texas. He provides insights into his choice of subject matter, his methods of working, and his philosophy of what art should be and do.For the many people who have already discovered Keith Carter's photography, this book offers a visually compelling summation of his career to date. Those who have not yet had that pleasure will find it here.

    Herrington was an American intelligence advisor assigned to root out the enemy in the Hau Nghia province. His two-year mission to capture or kill Communist agents operating there was made all the more difficult by local officials who were reluctant to cooperate, villagers who were too scared to talk, and VC who would not go down without a fight. Herrington developed an unexpected but intense identification with the villagers in his jurisdiction–and learned the hard way that experiencing war was profoundly different from philosophizing about it in a seminar room.

    "Shroud of the Gnome" is a bravura performance in Tate's signature style: playful, wicked, deliriously sober, charming, and dazzling. Here, once again, one of America's most masterful poets celebrates the inexplicable in his own strange tongue.

    . . . Deserves a place in the highest ranks of Civil War scholarship."--The Cleveland Plain DealerIn November 1860, telegraph lines carried the news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president. Over the next five months the United States drifted, stumbled, and finally plunged into the most destructive war this country has ever faced. With a masterful eye for telling detail, Maury Klein provides fascinating new insights into the period from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the shelling of Fort Sumter.Klein brings the key players in the tragedy unforgettably to life: from the vacillating lame-duck President Buchanan, to the taciturn, elusive, and relatively unknown Abraham Lincoln; from Secretary of State Seward carrying on his own private negotiations with the South, to Major Robert Anderson sitting in his island fortress awaiting reinforcements. Never has this immensely significant moment in our national story been so intelligently of so spellbindingly related.

    This volume completes the collected works of an American genius that Coffee House has helped rediscover.

    The new edition is entitled Archaeology of the Southwest, and it provides a coherent and comprehensive summary of the major themes and topics central to the modern practice and interpretation of Southwest archaeology. Cordell's text is the best study on the market. After an extensive review process, the revision addresses specific issues in order to effectively meet the audience's interests and demands. This new edition introduces new data and syntheses of information, including those available through advanced technology. It presents reconceptualized chapters, and provides new or improved illustrations throughout the text.Key Features* Offers a readable and accurate representation of current debates and research in the American Southwest* Challenges readers to integrate the structure and meaning of various broad regional trends that preceded the European conquest* Covers the latest in field research and topical syntheses* Addresses curricular cultural diversity requirements* Contains new maps, line drawings, and photos

    Originally published in African American newspapers, periodicals, and journals between 1880 and 1953, these enchanting Christmas tales are part of the black literary tradition that flourished after the Civil War.Edited and assembled by esteemed historian Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas, the short stories and poems in this collection reflect the Christmas experiences of everyday African Americans and explore familial and romantic love, faith, and more serious topics such as racism, violence, poverty, and racial identity. Featuring the best stories and poems from previous editions along with new material including "The Sermon in the Cradle" by W. E. B. Du Bois, A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories celebrates a rich storytelling tradition and will be cherished by readers for years to come.

    On her instruction, I have divided the stories into two broad sets: tales associated with various women's rituals and tales for entertainment on long, cold winter nights.From the back cover:"Oral tales establish relationships between storytellers and their listeners. Yet most printed collections of folktales contain only stories, stripped of the human contexts in which they are told. In this innovative book, Indian-American anthropologist Kirin Narayan reproduced twenty-one folktales narrated in a mountain dialect by a middle-aged Indian village woman, Urmila Devi Sood, or "Urmilaji." In dialogue with Kirin Narayan, Urmilaji Sood supplements her tales with interpretations of the wisdom that she perceives in them. In turn, Kirin Narayan sets these tales within a larger story about the joys and ironies of undertaking research in a village that is also home to her American mother. These narratives serve as both moral instruction and as beguiling entertainment. As mass-media floods across rural India, Urmilaji Sood reaffirms the value of tales that have been told and retold across generations. As she says, "Television can't teach you these things!" The first set of tales celebrate women's ritual powers: a washerwoman who brings the dead to life, a female weevil who observes fasts for a better rebirth, and a queen whose worship transforms mud into gold. The second set of tales describe the adventures of such characters as a princess married to a lion and a boy who God splits into two selves. Set evocatively amid the changing seasons in a Himalayan foothill village, the pathbreaking book draws a moving portrait of an accomplished woman storyteller. Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon offers a window into changing rural India and explores the significance of oral storytelling in nurturing human ties."

    

    Born of a friendship spanning a quarter of a century, Madeleine L'Engle and Luci Shaw's Friends for the Journey considers the golden quality of deep and lasting friendships, showing that the common ground of love for God transcends even separation.

    Almost uniquely, his works have never suffered the slightest period of eclipse. Profoundly emotional yet governed by an iron discipline, the music, like the man, is a fascinating, entertaining, often deeply moving blend of opposites. He had a gift for friendship and a capacity for love far beyond the ordinary, yet no man could be ruder or more hurtful. Though humble, he was consumed by a sense of destiny, and his inner life, colored by his adoration and fear of women, found expression in some of the greatest music ever written.Listening to this audio-biography is leaping inside the life and times of a great German Romantic, understanding the man who was haunted by the ghost of Beethoven for years and was forty-three before he wrote his First Symphony. Accompanied by a richly detailed booklet, this 4 CD-set is a sympathetic, absorbing account of a fascinating composer.

    The visionary leader whose ideals and political actions have shaped a century of African-American History.Elijah Muhammed, the founding father of The Nation of Islam and the forbear to Louis Farrahkhan, has no emerged as one of the most significan black leaders of this century. Claude Andrew Clegg II examines Muhammad's life from his birth in 1897 in Georgia, to his creation of the American Nation of Islam, to his final split with Malcolm X. Through this brilliant biography, we are finally able to understand the origins of Islam and black nationalism that has helped form the consciousness of African-American society for the last half-century.

    A stunning achievement!

    Featuring the works of eighty-seven classic, contemporary, and newly recovered writers of all genres--poetry, short fiction, drama, novels, autobiography, criticism, sermons, memoirs, journals, and letters--this groundbreaking anthology sheds new light on the creative power of the southern imagination.

    An excellent reference for young readers, The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage chonicles more than a millennium of history -- the rich and varied tapestry woven by Africans who remained on their ancestral continent, those who were forced to leave their homes, and their descendants who developed roots in a new land.The broad scope of coverage highlights people, places, culture, politics, and history.

    It is one of the few books that focus on how appropriate statistical presentation can enhance both comprehension and credibility. This is a perfect reference guide for those with either a rudimentary or an advanced statistical background.

    A new Parts of Speech table explains in simple language how words in the thesaurus are classified according to their function in a sentence.

    As settlers moved west following the Civil War, they found powerful Indian tribes barring the way. When the U.S. Army intervened, a bloody and prolonged conflict ensued.Drawing heavily from diaries, letters, and memoirs from American Plains settlers, historian Thomas Goodrich weaves a spellbinding tale of life and death on the prairie, told in the timeless words of the participants themselves. Scalp Dance is a powerful, unforgettable epic that shatters modern myths. Within its pages, the reader will find a truthful account of Indian warfare as it occurred.

    Focusing on paradigmatic figures ranging from Mary Wollstonecraft and Margaret Fuller to Germaine Greer and Susan Sontag, preeminent scholar Elaine Showalter uncovers common themes and patterns of women's lives across the centuries and discovers the feminist intellectual tradition they embodied. The author brilliantly illuminates the contributions of Eleanor Marx, Zora Neale Hurston, Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Mead, and many more.Showalter, a highly regarded critic known for her provocative and strongly held opinions, has here established a compelling new Who's Who of women's thought. Certain to spark controversy, the omission of such feminist perennials as Gloria Steinem, Susan B. Anthony, Robin Morgan, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Virginia Woolf will surprise and shock the conventional wisdom.

    The book demonstrates what sharply rising standards for literacy have meant to successive generations of Americans and how--as students, workers, parents, and citizens--they have responded to rapid changes in the meaning and methods of literacy learning in their society. Drawing on more than 80 life histories of Americans from all walks of life, the book addresses critical questions facing public education at the start of the twenty-first century.

    Buell examines three pairs of commanders from the North and South, who met each other in battle. Following each pair through the entire war, the author reveals the human dimensions of the drama and brings the battles to life. 38 b&w photos.From the Hardcover edition.

    This is the story of the murders, their aftermath, and the handful of people who kept faith amid the unthinkable.

    His medicines lifted debilitating migraines in as little as 3 minutes. Revici's reward? He was attacked and ostracized by the best. JAMA published false reports about his work. The American Cancer Society blasted him time and again. Meanwhile, word of mouth brought new patients to see him for decades. The smears didn't work, so something more needed to be done. This is the true story of the greatest medical scientist who has ever lived. Find out what happened to Dr. Revici and find out how you can use the principles of his discoveries to reverse even advanced cancers and many other illnesses. You'll meet patients with all kinds of cancers have been healed and cured with the Revici Method: lung cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, brain tumors, etc.

    Chastity is shown to be the Christian way of living out God's will as it encourages an attitude of reverence for the mysteries of procreation. Illustrated.Originally published in France, this book has been so popular that it has already been translated and published in six other language editions.

    What most captivated the Beats was his extraordinary ability to relate his life story in pared-down, unaffected prose. It inspired them to create a new type of literature, free of constraint and self-consciousness. Huncke's work is a vital part of Beat literature, but until now it has remained relatively unknown. The Herbert Huncke Reader includes the full texts of Huncke's long-out-of-print classics Huncke's Journal and The Evening Sun Turned Crimson, excerpts from his autobiography, Guilty of Everything, and a wide selection from his unpublished letters and diaries.

    Ms. Frank creates subtle calibrations of the inner spaces and silences separating people, and the haunting undercurrents of feeling that hold them together. In the concluding novella, The Map Maker, those undercurrents exert an especially powerful tow, washing up a lost cargo of familial misunderstandings.

    From Journals of Ayn Rand, we gain an invaluable new understanding and appreciation of the woman, the artist, and the philosopher, and of the enduring legacy she has left us.Rand comes vibrantly to life as an untried screenwriter in Hollywood, creating stories that reflect her youthful vision of the world. We see her painful memories of communist Russia and her struggles to convey them in We the Living. Most fascinating is the intricate, step-by-step process through which she created the plots and characters of her two masterworks, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and the years of painstaking research that imbued the novels with their powerful authenticity. Complete with reflections on her legendary screenplay concerning the making of the atomic bomb and tantalizing descriptions of projects cut short by her death, Journals of Ayn Rand illuminates the mind and heart of an extraordinary woman as no biography or memoir ever could. On these vivid pages, Ayn Rand lives.

    In Sailing for Dummies, Second Edition, two U.S. sailing champions show you how to:Find and choose a sailing school Use life jackets correctly Tie ten nautical knots Handle sailing emergencies (such as capsizing and rescuing a man overboard) Launch your boat from a trailer, ramp, or beach Get your boat from point A to point B (and back again) Predict and respond to water and wind conditions Read charts, plot your course, use a compass, and find your position at sea Sailing for Dummies shows you that getting out on the water is easier than you think. The authors keep the sailor-speak to a minimum where possible, but give you a grasp of the terminology you need to safely and effectively communicate with your crew. A textbook, user's manual, and reference all in one, this book takes the intimidation out of sailing and gives you the skills and confidence you need to get your feet wet and become the sailing pro you've always wanted to be. Anchors away!

    . . . The pasts and common destiny of two remarkable women--related with perfect timing in Sofia's convincing Yiddish-tinged English--come together beautifully in this nicely crafted, emotionally satisfying, and well-researched historical fiction."--"Publishers Weekly"Set in the brothels and gangster dens of Jewish Buenos Aires at the beginning of the twentieth century, "The Escape Artist "catapults us into the lives of Sofia Teitelbaum (tricked into prostitution and away from the gentility of her Eastern European family), and a handsome, mysterious magician, Hankus--formerly Hannah--Lubarsky.Traveling in a world of small-scale criminals and large emotions, our two lesbian heroes rub elbows with--and up against--Sofia's captors, the formidable and bizarrely religious Madame Perle Goldenberg and her malcontent brother Tutsik; Marek Fishbein, the boorish king pimp of the ghetto; Perle's bordello colleague, salty Red Ruthie; and a bevy of unblushing racketeers, hypocrites, and whores.Written with the bent notes and dizzying rhythms of a Klezmer tune, "The Escape Artist" is a breathtaking, delightful tale, full of spills, chills, and lush language.Judith Katz is the author of two published novels, "The Escape Artist," and "Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound," which won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. She has received Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and National Endowment fellowships for fiction. She teaches at the University of Minnesota.

    But things are not so simple. For while the culture of modernity has spread gradually throughout the West for roughly two hundred years, it accelerated in the 1960s in such a way as to undergo a subtle transformation. Hence the paradox of the world we live in: by all appearances the "rights of man" have emerged triumphant, yet at the same time they have been emptied of substance because of their radicalization. Modern man finds himself isolated and ensnared. By right, his autonomy should strengthen him; but in fact, he has been dispossessed of himself. The great artifice of our time is to give conformism the mask of liberty. Philippe Beneton, a prominent French conservative, has long meditated on Tocqueville, and Equality by Default is quintessentially Tocquevillian in that it does not offer a partisan polemic but rather paints a picture of contemporary life -- a picture that is also a guide for those who have a difficult time "seeing" contemporary liberalism for what it is. Artfully translated by Ralph Hancock, Equality by Default offers a unique and strikingly insightful account of the late-modern mind.

    Marshy Everglades, and tropical Keys occupy the south, while the vacation capital of Miami rises along the east coast. From the extravagant Gilded Age of manses and fantastic beaches of the Gold and Treasure Coasts to the amusement parks of Orlando, and St. Augustine's Spanish-Colonial era architecture in the Northeast, Florida is a region of stark contrasts. For more valuable travel information about art, shopping, entertainment, nightlife, hotels and sports look to Eyewitness Travel to Florida.

    This title reveals the ideas and personality of this artist.

    Twenty years later, New York City was home to more Irish Catholics than Dublin. Today, the United States boasts some sixty million members of the Catholic Church, which has become one of this country's most influential cultural forces.In American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church, Charles R. Morris recounts the rich story of the rise of the Catholic Church in America, bringing to life the personalities that transformed an urban Irish subculture into a dominant presence nationwide. Here are the stories of rogues and ruffians, heroes and martyrs--from Dorothy Day, a convert from Greenwich Village Marxism who opened shelters for thousands, to Cardinal William O'Connell, who ran the Church in Boston from a Renaissance palazzo, complete with golf course. Morris also reveals the Church's continuing struggle to come to terms with secular, pluralist America and the theological, sexual, authority, and gender issues that keep tearing it apart. As comprehensive as it is provocative, American Catholic is a tour de force, a fascinating cultural history that will engage and inform both Catholics and non-Catholics alike."The best one-volume history of the last hundred years of American Catholicism that it has ever been my pleasure to read.  What's appealing in this remarkable book is its delicate sense of balance and its soundly grounded judgments." --Andrew Greeley

    The story of two white-collar managers, Chad and Howard, who maliciously plot to jointly romance the lonely, deaf, beautiful office temp Christine before simultaneously dumping her, is cool and compelling in its depiction of the worst sorts of emotional abuse. What begins as a cat-and-mouse game of one-upmanship quickly escalates into full-scale psychological warfare. Only too late does this 'frat boy' prank reveal itself as deadly serious, with a struggle between the two men at the heart of the battle. The woman is only a means to an end, a pawn easily captured and tossed aside in a dark, wicked duel for corporate ascension.

    

    With the help of The Nation Institute and a professional polling team, they discovered that what Americans want in art, regardless of class, race, or gender, is exactly what the art world disdains—a tranquil, realistic, blue landscape.Painting by Numbers includes the original questionnaire and reproductions of the "most wanted" and "most unwanted" paintings the artists made based on American survey results and on polls they commissioned in ten other countries—including Russia, China, France, and Kenya—representing almost one-third of the world's population. Essays by JoAnn Wypijewski and noted art critic Arthur Danto, as well as an interview with the artists, explore the crisis of modernism, the cultural meaning of polls, the significance of landscape, and the commodificaion of just about everything.

    It might be the clean prairie air. It might be the wholesome wheat that's grown by the Norwegian bachelor farmers. And it just might be their strong, good-looking parents.Garrison Keillor's collection of "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues—all taken from live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion—is an extended meditation on the joys, sorrows, challenges, and humor of raising children. The tales include "Ronnie and the Winnebago" about a young man, his rock-star girlfriend, and his long struggle to earn his father's understanding; "Love While You Dare" the story of August Johnson, who, after losing his brother in a gambler's prank in Copenhagen, flees to America rather than face his mother--who later comes to visit him in Lake Wobegon; and six more splendid, unforgettable accounts of how, in Keillor's words, "the meek shall inherit the earth, and when we have done all we can with our children, it's time to step back and let them inherit it." Contents:  Ball Jars, Love While you Dare To, Saturday Morning in The Bon Marche, Family Trip to Yellowstone, The Flood, Bob Anderson's Last Dance, Children Will Break Your Heart, Ronnie and The Winnebago, Carl's Christmas Pageant, The Tombstone

    The collection presents the most telling fiction and nonfiction produced in the South from the late eighteenth century to the present. Renowned authors such as James Agee, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor appear in these pages, but so do people whose writing did not immediately reach a large audience. For example, Harriet A. Jacobs' book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which is now recognized as one of the most illuminating narratives of a former slave, was neglected for generations. And Sarah Morgan's powerful Civil War Diary has only recently come to widespread attention. The Oxford Book of the American South presents compelling autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and journalism as well as stories and selections from novels, and runs the spectrum from the conservative to the radical, the traditional to the innovative. Editors Edward L. Ayers and Bradley C. Mittendorf have arranged these diverse readings so that they fit together into a rich mosaic of Southern life and history. The sections of the book The Old South, The Civil War and Its Consequences, Hard Times, and The Turning unfold a vivid record of life below the Mason Dixon line. We see the antebellum period both from the perspective of those who experienced it first-hand, such as Thomas Jefferson and former slaves Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass, and then from the perspective of authors looking back on that era, including William Styron and Sherley Anne Williams. Likewise, we see the Civil War through the eyes of witnesses such as Sam Watkins, through the eyes of later writers trying to make sense of the conflict, such as Robert Penn Warren, and through the eyes of those using the war's intense passions to fuel their fiction, such as Margaret Mitchell and Barry Hannah. The classic authors of the Southern Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s appear here in the context of the hard times in which they wrote. The years since World War II are chronicled in the powerful words of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, George Garrett's Good bye, Good bye, Be Always Kind and True, and Peter Taylor's The Decline and Fall of the Episcopal Church, in the Year of Our Lord 1952. The editors have selected these readings, their Preface tells us, to convey the passions that have surfaced time and again in more than two hundred years of Southern writing. Indeed, the struggles, defeats, and triumphs chronicled inThe Oxford Book of the American South speak not just to the South, but to all of the American experience. They document and evoke some of the most dramatic episodes in the nation's life

    Easy-to-read articles by distinguished theologians, historians, and archaeologists help us come closer to understanding the truths conveyed by the Bible's psalms, gospels, proverbs, and prophesies.

    Fully indexed by title, stars, and director and thoroughly cross-referenced, this guide to movies on video also features lists of outstanding movies, new interviews, and full-length reviews.

    Examining works by Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph WaldoEmerson, Margaret Fuller, and others, Howe investigates how Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries engaged in the process of self-construction, self-improvement, and the pursuit of happiness. He explores as well how Americans understood individual identity in relation to the larger bodypolitic, and argues that the conscious construction of the autonomous self was in fact essential to American democracy--that it both shaped and was in turn shaped by American democratic institutions. The thinkers described in this book, Howe writes, believed that, to the extent individualsexercised self-control, they were making free institutions--liberal, republican, and democratic--possible. And as the scope of American democracy widened so too did the practice of self-construction, moving beyond the preserve of elite white males to potentially all Americans. Howe concludes thatthe time has come to ground our democracy once again in habits of personal responsibility, civility, and self-discipline esteemed by some of America's most important thinkers.Erudite, beautifully written, and more pertinent than ever as we enter a new era of individual and governmental responsibility, Making the American Self illuminates an impulse at the very heart of the American experience.

    Through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1950s and 60s, Rockwell illustrations were a part of daily life, showing, as he once said, "the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed."

    On the Road with the Archangel is sure to continue this tradition with its powerful blend of humor, artistry, and insight into the nature of the human and the divine. Inspired by events in the apocryphal Book of Tobit, from the second century B.C., this is the magical tale of two families brought together, as no mere coincidence, by the devilishly clever archangel Raphael. One is the family of Tobit, a virtuous man who can no longer support his wife and son because of Raguel, the quiet, devoted father of Sarah whose pact with the demon Asmodeus has left her life in tragic shambles.Assuming human form, Raphael appears before Tabias, Tobit's devoted son, to help him retrieve his father's fortune hidden in a faraway city. Together, they embark on a miraculous journey in search of the answers to both families' prayers--a journey that is made challenging and delightful by Rapheal's artful efficiency.On the Road with the Archangel is a masterful combination of fluid writing, lyrical storytelling, and ancient truth blended with modern wisdom. And beneath it all lies a subtle, glowing meditation on the nature of the Holy.Hailed as "one of our most original storytellers" (USA Today), Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Frederick Buechner has written an extraordinary new novel that shines with the mystery and wonder of the divine. Drawn from the ancient apocryphal Book of Tobit, On the Road with the Archangel unravels the tale of a eccentric blind father and his somewhat bumbling song who journeys to seek his family's lost treasure. Narrated by the wry and resourceful archangel Raphael, Buencher's tale is a pure delight, alive with vivid characters, delightful adventures and wondrous revelations.

    This collection brings together twenty-one of Lardner’s best pieces, including the six Jack Keefe stories that comprise You Know Me, Al, as well as such familiar favorites as “Alibi Ike,” “Some Like Them Cold,” and “Guillible’s Travels.”

    In The Way, Clark Carlton turns his attention to the fundamental differences between Orthodoxy and Protestantism. In a clear, well-written style, Clark Carlton articulates a broad vision of the Historic Church and gently explains how Protestants may embrace the fullness of the Christian faith.The Way is the perfect sequel to Carlton's best selling The Faith.The Way is a book that every Protestant interested in Orthodoxy must read. The Way is an invaluable resource for Orthodox who want to understand the Protestant culture in which we live.The Way is the perfect gift for Orthodox to give to Protestant friend or family.

    Clover fuses formal control, a solid grounding in poetic tradition (his allusions range from Shakespeare to Dickinson to John Cale), and sheer visionary exhilaration into a technical, moral, aesthetic, and imaginative lexicon that irradiates each page.The eerie cyberglow of Clover's lines illuminates a pageant of blurred and fragmented desolation: the Bomb, death camps, the Persian Gulf War, the beating of Rodney King, the whole numbing litany of modern horrors. Clover is a master of poetic shorthand, of the stark, unnerving image as immediate as yellow tape at a crime scene.Madonna anno domini is a sacrament for the twilight of the atomic age, a hellish Interzone with "God in abeyance" where dazed speakers search through the vertigo of negation for love and belief. And here. in this utterly convincing vision of a world whose center has long since lost its hold, we see the life on whose brink we, at the end of the millennium, find ourselves poised.