Best of
Non-Fiction

1942

The World of Yesterday


Stefan Zweig - 1942
    Originally titled “Three Lives,” the memoir describes Vienna of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, the world between the two world wars and the Hitler years.Translated from the German by Benjamin W. Huebsch and Helmut Ripperger; with an introduction by Harry Zohn, 34 illustrations, a chronology of Stefan Zweig’s life and a new bibliography, by Randolph Klawiter, of works by and about Stefan Zweig in English.“The best single memoir of Old Vienna by any of the city’s native artists.” — Clive James“A book that should be read by anyone who is even slightly interested in the creative imagination and the intellectual life, the brute force of history upon individual lives, the possibility of culture and, quite simply, what it meant to be alive between 1881 and 1942.” — The Guardian“It is not so much a memoir of a life as it is the memento of an age.” — The New Republic

Mere Christianity


C.S. Lewis - 1942
    Lewis's forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief. First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books - The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality - Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis saw as the fundamental truths of the religion. Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, C.S. Lewis finds a common ground on which all those who have Christian faith can stand together, proving that "at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks the same voice."

Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature


Erich Auerbach - 1942
    A brilliant display of erudition, wit, and wisdom, his exploration of how great European writers from Homer to Virginia Woolf depicted reality has taught generations how to read Western literature. This new expanded edition includes a substantial essay in introduction by Edward Said as well as an essay, never before translated into English, in which Auerbach responds to his critics.A German Jew, Auerbach was forced out of his professorship at the University of Marburg in 1935. He left for Turkey, where he taught at the state university in Istanbul. There he wrote "Mimesis," publishing it in German after the end of the war. Displaced as he was, Auerbach produced a work of great erudition that contains no footnotes, basing his arguments instead on searching, illuminating readings of key passages from his primary texts. His aim was to show how from antiquity to the twentieth century literature progressed toward ever more naturalistic and democratic forms of representation. This essentially optimistic view of European history now appears as a defensive--and impassioned--response to the inhumanity he saw in the Third Reich. Ranging over works in Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English, Auerbach used his remarkable skills in philology and comparative literature to refute any narrow form of nationalism or chauvinism, in his own day and ours. For many readers, both inside and outside the academy, "Mimesis" is among the finest works of literary criticism ever written.

One Man's Meat


E.B. White - 1942
    Too personal for an almanac, too sophisticated for a domestic history,and too funny and self-doubting for a literary journal, One Man's Meatcan best be described as a primer of a countryman's lessons a timelessrecounting of experience that will never go out of style.

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas


Mari Sandoz - 1942
    He held out boldly against the government's efforts to confine the Sioux on reservations. Finally, in the spring of 1877 he surrendered, one of the last important chiefs to do so, only to meet a violent death. Mari Sandoz, the noted author of Cheyenne Autumn and Old Jules, both available as Bison Books, has captured the spirit of Crazy Horse with a strength and nobility befitting his heroism.

We Took to the Woods


Louise Dickinson Rich - 1942
    They found their livelihood and raised a family in the remote backcountry settlement of Middle Dam, in the Rangeley area. Rich made time after morning chores to write about their lives. We Took to the Woods is an adventure story, written with humor, but it also portrays a cherished dream awakened into full life. First published 1942.

The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives


Lajos Egri - 1942
    Lajos Egri's classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay. Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives - why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise - a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior - and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior.Using Egri's ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing.

How to Cook a Wolf


M.F.K. Fisher - 1942
    Fisher's guide to living happily even in trying times, which was first published during the Second World War in the days of ration cards; includes more than seventy recipes based on food staples and features sections such as "How to Keep Alive" and "How to Comfort Sorrow.".

West with the Night


Beryl Markham - 1942
    Beryl Markham’s life story is a true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love affairs, survived desperate crash landings—and chronicled everything. A contemporary of Karen Blixen (better known as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa), Markham left an enduring memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights. A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She trained as a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had completed in reverse just a few years before. Markham’s successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul of Africa”—are all told here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. Hailed as “one of the greatest adventure books of all time” by Newsweek and “the sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything” by the New York Times, West with the Night remains a powerful testament to one of the iconic lives of the twentieth century.

Dust Tracks on a Road


Zora Neale Hurston - 1942
    Review of Books.First published in 1942 at the height of her popularity, Dust Tracks on a Road is Zora Neale Hurston's candid, funny, bold and poignant autobiography, an imaginative and exuberant account of her rise from childhood poverty in the rural South to a prominent place among the leading artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance. As compelling as her acclaimed fiction, Hurston's very personal literary self-portrait offers a revealing, often audacious glimpse into the life–public and private–of an extraordinary artist, anthropologist, chronicler, and champion of the black experience in America. Full of the wit and wisdom of a proud, spirited woman who started off low and climbed hight, Dust Tracks on a Road is a rare treasure from one of literature's most cherished voices.

Lectures of Col. Robert Green Ingersoll


Robert G. Ingersoll - 1942
    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s


Cornelia Otis Skinner - 1942
    Some of the more amusing anecdotes involve a pair of rabbit-skin capes that begin shedding at the most inopportune moments and an episode in which the girls are stranded atop Notre Dame cathedral at midnight. And, of course, there's romance, in the form of handsome young doctor Tom Newhall and college "Lothario" Avery Moore.

The Raft


Robert Trumbull - 1942
    A gripping account of three naval airmen adrift in the Pacific for 34 days.

The Seven Main Aspects of God


Emmet Fox - 1942
    

From the Land of Silent People


Robert William St. John - 1942
    An account of the German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece during World War Two by a newspaper correspondent

Exploring the Dangerous Trades: The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton, M.D.


Alice Hamilton - 1942
    Occupational medicine pioneer Alice Hamilton tells in her own words how she helped change history and the reasons for her unprecedented success in what was truly a male-dominated profession.Dr. Hamilton, in whose name AIHA recently established an annual achievement award, was a leading authority on lead poisoning and other industrial hygiene concerns years before AIHA was even formed. But this book is more than just a narrative of her accomplishments in ocupational medicine; it provides insight into her personality, her humor, her beliefs and, most important, her determination to make the world a better place.Years after her death, Alice Hamilton's story remains as poignant as ever.

Drinkers of the wind


Carl Reinhard Raswan - 1942
    Library of Congress http://lccn.loc.gov/42022936

Strange Cults and Secret Societies of Modern London


Elliott O'Donnell - 1942
    Partial Contents: Thirteen society and cult; Grey sisters; Black brothers; Chinese secret societies and black magic; Mafia; Leopard and panther people; Tree cults; Suicide society; Cult of cruelty; The "S" society.

The Art of Walt Disney


Robert D. Feild - 1942
    

Traditions of the Navy: A Collection of Naval Customs, Terms and Traditions


Cedric W. Windas - 1942
    Particularly is it expressed in the ceremony, tradition, nautical, customs, distinctive dress, insignia, and peculiarities of speech that set the Navy man apart from his fellow warriors. A better knowledge of the origin of these traditions and customs is of real value not only to the Navy man but to anyone interested in the naval service. This book is a repository of such knowledge. Both the informative text and the excellent illustrations of Mr. Windas' book provide a wealth of authoritative information in a highly palatable form.

The Mystic Way


Evelyn Underhill - 1942
    In this volume, she reviews the development of the mystical tradition within Christianity and strives to define the true character and origin of the Christian mystic. She also describes how the Christian mystic differs from mystics arising from other spiritual traditions -- how the Christian tradition enriches the mystical experience.The Mystic Way stands as a strong and powerful rebuke to all who try to estrange Christianity from its mystical roots. It is an important book for everyone seeking to understand the spiritual path -- and Christianity.

Art of Living Long


Luigi Cornaro - 1942
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Marcion and the New Testament


John Knox Sr. - 1942
    Its reconstructed fragments appear among the apocrypha. So many Catholic apologists wrote treatises against Marcion after his death, in addition to the noted diatribe by Tertullian, that it has been possible to reconstruct almost the whole of his Gospel of the Lord from their quotations. Marcion, then, is known only thru his critics, who considered him a major threat to the form of Xianity they knew. There are two possible relationships between Marcion's gospel & Luke's:(1) Marcion as revisionist of Luke:Church Fathers wrote & many scholars agree that Marcion edited Luke to fit his own theology. This view is consistent with the way he altered other books in his canon. It's also likely because Luke's gospel was believed to be complete by Marcion's time. In it, he eliminated the 1st two chapters concerning the nativity & beginning at Capernaum & made modifications of the remainder to promote the gnostic view that, 1st, Jesus didn't follow the Prophets &, 2nd, the earth is evil.(2) Marcion pre-dating Luke:John Knox Sr. in Marcion & the New Testament was the 1st to propose in 1942 that Marcion's Gospel may have preceded Luke's Gospel & Acts, echoing Marcion's own claims. Some recent scholars have agreed. In this case, Luke's gospel wasn't finished. There are two possibilities: Either Marcion & Luke both based their gospels on an earlier, common source (such as Matthew & Mark in the Augustinian hypothesis), or the Gospel of Luke was based on Marcion's gospel. For an example of evidence supporting this view, compare Luke 5:39 to 5:36-38. Some scholars question whether Marcion deleted 5:39 from his Gospel or whether it was added later, by Proto-orthodox Xianity, to counteract a Marcionist interpretation of 5:36-38.

Headhunting In The Solomon Islands Around The Coral Sea


Caroline Mytinger - 1942
    The author managed to keep her head but recorded the life of the people with her paintings and sketches. Its become a minor travel classic.

Sermon on the Mount


Charles Freer Andrews - 1942
    "In the midst of this world's anguish this book will renew the message of undying peace and love"--so writes Tagore in his foreword, and he adds that friends "saw in the life of Andrews a noble embodiment of the Sermon on the Mount." When, towards the end of his life, he was ordered to rest from overwork, he found relief and refreshment in dwelling "continually on this one theme of Christ and the Good Life." Here is Andrews' commentary on the "sheer marvel of the Sermon on the Mount"; but it is more than a commentary; it breathes throughout the spiritual grace of one who lived the Sermon on the Mount, who, in his love for humanity, whether Indians, Englishmen, or the Kaffir aboriginals of South Africa, accepted this love as the law of Christ, and who could be called truly an apostle of Christ."

Victory for the Slain


Hugh Lofting - 1942
    He knew intimately the horror of human killing human in what seemed an endless litany of the worst of us.Then in 1942, in the midst of the unbelievable recurrence of war once again, and nearing the end of his life, the need to commit his feelings to paper became overwhelming. His passions and fears overflowed into a long poem, his only work for adults.Victory for the Slain begins with him encountering and helping a soldier who is struggling to light a cigarette, having lost a hand. He walks on, musing on the maiming cost of martial conflict. His path takes him to a church, where, alone, and surrounded by the sense of the past, the terrible present with its constant aerial bombing, and apprehension for the future at this uncertain and perilous stage of the war, he registers quaveringly and with great emotion both how fearful he is and how appallingly foolish are the paths down which humankind’s belligerence can take us.Reflecting on history, philosophy, violence, nationalism, death, and what seems like madness, as he wanders through the quiet of the church he gravely sounds every vibration and implication of the horror which surrounds him in the world’s current chaos. For him, there reverberates one heartrending refrain: in war, the only victors are the slain.