Best of
Non-Fiction

1959

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage


Alfred Lansing - 1959
    Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.

The Longest Day


Cornelius Ryan - 1959
    A compelling tale of courage and heroism, glow and tragedy, The Longest Day painstakingly recreates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism and free Europe from the grip of Nazi Germany.For this new edition of The Longest Day, the original photographs used in the first 1959 edition have been reassembled and painstakingly reproduced, and the text has been freshly reset. Here is a book that is a must for any follower of history, as well as for anyone who wants to better understand how free nations prevailed at a time when darkness enshrouded the earth.

All But My Life: A Memoir


Gerda Weissmann Klein - 1959
    From her comfortable home in Bielitz (present-day Bielsko) in Poland to her miraculous survival and her liberation by American troops—including the man who was to become her husband—in Volary, Czechoslovakia, in 1945, Gerda takes the reader on a terrifying journey. Gerda's serene and idyllic childhood is shattered when Nazis march into Poland on September 3, 1939. Although the Weissmanns were permitted to live for a while in the basement of their home, they were eventually separated and sent to German labor camps. Over the next few years Gerda experienced the slow, inexorable stripping away of "all but her life." By the end of the war she had lost her parents, brother, home, possessions, and community; even the dear friends she made in the labor camps, with whom she had shared so many hardships, were dead. Despite her horrifying experiences, Klein conveys great strength of spirit and faith in humanity. In the darkness of the camps, Gerda and her young friends manage to create a community of friendship and love. Although stripped of the essence of life, they were able to survive the barbarity of their captors. Gerda's beautifully written story gives an invaluable message to everyone. It introduces them to last century's terrible history of devastation and prejudice, yet offers them hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.

James Joyce


Richard Ellmann - 1959
    To be fair, Ellmann does have some distinct advantages. For starters, there's his deep mastery of the Irish milieu--demonstrated not only in this volume but in his books on Yeats and Wilde. He's also an admirable stylist himself--graceful, witty, and happily unintimidated by his brilliant subjects. But in addition, Ellmann seems to have an uncanny grasp on Joyce's personality: his reverence for the Irishman's literary accomplishment is always balanced by a kind of bemused affection for his faults. Whether Joyce is putting the finishing touches on Ulysses, falling down drunk in the streets of Trieste, or talking dirty to his future wife via the postal service, Ellmann's account always shows us a genius and a human being--a daunting enough task for a fiction writer, let alone the poor, fact-fettered biographer. Richard Ellmann has revised and expanded his definitive work on Joyce's life to include newly discovered primary material, including details of a failed love affair, a limerick about Samuel Beckett, a dream notebook, previously unknown letters, and much more.

Jungle Pilot: The Gripping Story of the Life and Witness of Nate Saint, martyred missionary to Ecuador


Russell T. Hitt - 1959
    Hear a story of faithfulness to Christ when pilot Nate Saint and four other missionaries were killed in Ecuador by the people they had come to serve.

The Masks of God, Volume 1: Primitive Mythology


Joseph Campbell - 1959
    The author of such acclaimed books as Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth discusses the primitive roots of mythology, examining them in light of the most recent discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology.

The Face of War


Martha Gellhorn - 1959
    From the Spanish Civil War in 1937 through the wars in Central America in the mid-eighties, her candid reports reflected her feelings for people no matter what their political ideologies, and the openness and vulnerability of her conscience. I wrote very fast, as I had to, she says, afraid that I would forget the exact sound, smell, words, gestures, which were special to this moment and this place. Whether in Java, Finland, the Middle East, or Vietnam, she used the same vigorous approach. Collected here together for the first time, The Face of War is what The New York Times called a brilliant anti-war book.

Arabian Sands


Wilfred Thesiger - 1959
    Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life-"the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets." In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East.

The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe


Arthur Koestler - 1959
    In this masterly synthesis, Arthur Koestler cuts through the sterile distinction between 'sciences' and 'humanities' to bring to life the whole history of cosmology from the Babylonians to Newton. He shows how the tragic split between science and religion arose and how, in particular, the modern world-view replaced the medieval world-view in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. He also provides vivid and judicious pen-portraits of a string of great scientists and makes clear the role that political bias and unconscious prejudice played in their creativity.

Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations


Oscar Wilde - 1959
    "I am always satisfied with the best." In this superlative collection of quotations by the great Irish playwright and wit, readers will find the very best of Wilde's scintillating comments on art, human nature, morals, society, politics, history, and numerous other subjects. Epigrams, aphorisms, and other bon mots gleaned from Wilde's enduringly popular plays, essays, and conversation offer amusing, thought-provoking observations that resonate with truth and profundity beneath their comic surface.Widely acknowledged as the most brilliant talker of his age, Wilde once explained to André Gide, "I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works." This fine collection of nearly 400 quotes, organized by category, contains quotations from both his works and his conversation, including gems from his personal life with which even devotees may be unfamiliar. The result is a splendid introduction to Wilde's mind and personality, embodied in a feast of the English language's most brilliant and perceptive witticisms.

Goodbye to a River: A Narrative


John Graves - 1959
    For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was thus changed, the beautiful and sometimes brutal surrounding countryside would also change, as would the lives of the people whose rugged ancestors had eked out an existence there. Graves therefore decided to visit that stretch of the river, which he had known intimately as a youth.Goodbye to a River is his account of that farewell canoe voyage. As he braves rapids and fatigue and the fickle autumn weather, he muses upon old blood feuds of the region and violent skirmishes with native tribes, and retells wild stories of courage and cowardice and deceit that shaped both the river’s people and the land during frontier times and later. Nearly half a century after its initial publication, Goodbye to a River is a true American classic, a vivid narrative about an exciting journey and a powerful tribute to a vanishing way of life and its ever-changing natural environment.

The Sociological Imagination


C. Wright Mills - 1959
    Wright Mills is best remembered for his highly acclaimed work The Sociological Imagination, in which he set forth his views on how social science should be pursued. Hailed upon publication as a cogent and hard-hitting critique, The Sociological Imagination took issue with the ascendant schools of sociology in the United States, calling for a humanist sociology connecting the social, personal, and historical dimensions of our lives. The sociological imagination Mills calls for is a sociological vision, a way of looking at the world that can see links between the apparently private problems of the individual and important social issues.

A Guide Book of United States Coins 2018: The Official Red Book


R.S. Yeoman - 1959
    The Red Book shows mintages for all federal coins, from the ultra rare to the everyday. You might have a real rarity in your pocket change! Find out how much your coins are worth: The Red Book has clear, easy-to-follow grading information for each series, and prices in up to 9 grades per coin. Colonial and early American coins · Federal coins · Commemoratives Proof and Mint sets · Die varieties and errors · Civil War tokens · Territorial gold · State and territorial quarters · National Park quarters · Presidential dollars · Puerto Rican, Philippine, and Hawaiian coins · Error coins · Bullion

A Dying Colonialism


Frantz Fanon - 1959
    Fanon uses the fifth year of the Algerian Revolution as a point of departure for an explication of the inevitable dynamics of colonial oppression.

The White Spider


Heinrich Harrer - 1959
    For a generation of American climbers, The White Spider has been a formative book--yet it has long been out-of-print in America. This edition awaits discovery by Harrer's new legion of readers.

The Bottom Of The Harbor


Joseph Mitchell - 1959
    As William Fiennes wrote in the London Review of Books, 'Mitchell was the laureate of the waters around New York', and in The Bottom of the Harbor he records the lives and practices of the rivermen, with love and understanding and a sharp eye for the eccentric and strange. This is some of the best journalist ever written.

A Chelsea Concerto


Frances Faviell - 1959
    Chelsea was particularly heavily bombed and the author was often in the heart of the action, witnessing or involved in fascinating and horrific events through 1940 and 1941. Her memoir evokes an unforgettable cast, Londoners and refugees alike, caught up together in extraordinary and dangerous times – not forgetting the ‘Green Cat’, a Chinese statuette, standing on the author’s window sill as the home’s talismanic protector.Frances Faviell’s memoir is powerful in its blend of humour, tenderness and horror, including the most haunting ending of any wartime memoir. A Chelsea Concerto is reprinted now for the first time since 1959, with a new introduction by Virginia Nicholson.

Groucho and Me


Groucho Marx - 1959
    Julius Henry Marx.

Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions


Martin Gardner - 1959
    He has selected a group of diversions which are not only entertaining but mathematically meaningful as well. The result is a work which is rewarding on almost every level of mathematical achievement."—Miriam Hecht, Iscripta Mathematica

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life


Erving Goffman - 1959
    This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience. The discussions of these social techniques offered here are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.

The Years with Ross


James Thurber - 1959
    . . . life at The New Yorker emerges as a lovely sort of pageant of lunacy, of practical jokes, of feuds and foibles. It is an affectionate picture of scamps playing their games around a man who, for all his brusqueness, loved them, took care of them, pampered and scolded them like an irascible mother hen.” —New York Times With a foreword by Adam Gopnik and illustrations by James ThurberAt the helm of America’s most influential literary magazine from 1925 to 1951, Harold Ross introduced the country to a host of exciting talent, including Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, Ogden Nash, Peter Arno, Charles Addams, and Dorothy Parker. But no one could have written about this irascible, eccentric genius more affectionately or more critically than James Thurber, whose portrait of Ross captures not only a complex literary giant but a historic friendship and a glorious era as well. "If you get Ross down on paper," warned Wolcott Gibbs to Thurber," nobody will ever believe it." But readers of this unforgettable memoir will find that they do.Offering a peek into the lives of two American literary giants and the New York literary scene at its heyday, The Years with Ross is a true classic, and a testament to the enduring influence of their genius.

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren


Iona Opie - 1959
    Going outside the nursery, with its assortment of parent-approved entertainments, to observe and investigate the day-to-day creative intelligence and activities of children, the Opies bring to life the rites and rhymes, jokes and jeers, laws, games, and secret spells of what has been called "the greatest of savage tribes, and the only one which shows no signs of dying out."

Mark Twain Tonight!


Hal Holbrook - 1959
    An all-time audio bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold, this is the original award-winning performance.

The Search for Serenity and How to Achieve It


Lewis F. Presnall - 1959
    This classic book describes the real practical ways to replace misery or stress with serenity and is a most helpful guide for anyone seeking peace of mind in this troubled world of tensions, pressures, and fears.

I Have Not Seen A Butterfly Around Here: Children's Drawings And Poems From Terezín


Anita Franková - 1959
    Based on the book "Children's drawings and poems-Terezín 1942-1944", edited by Hana Volavkovà of the State Jewish Museum in Prague in 1959, prepared for publication by Anita Frankovà and Hana Povolnà.

The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico


Miguel León-Portilla - 1959
    Miguel León-Portilla had the incomparable success of organizing texts translated from Nahuatl by Ángel María Garibay Kintana to give us the The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico: Indigenous people of Tenochtitlán, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Chalco and Tlaxcala were formed about the struggle against the conquerors and the final ruin of the Aztec world.An account of the omens that announced the disaster, a description of Cortes' progress, a chronicle of the heroic battle of the ancient Mexicans in defense of their culture and of their own lives, a civilization that was lost forever, a great epic poem of the origins of Mexican nationality, The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico is already a classic book and an indispensable reading work.

My Beloved: The Story of a Carmelite Nun


Mother Catherine Thomas - 1959
    She tells her story of her own vocation, her life as a Carmelite, what drew her to the cloister, and what kept her there, and includes the small details that many might wish to ask but are afraid to.

The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle


J. Glenn Gray - 1959
    Glenn Gray entered the army as a private in May 1941, having been drafted on the same day he was informed of his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. He was discharged as a second lieutenant in October 1945, having been awarded a battlefield commission during fighting in France. Gray saw service in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany in a counter-espionage unit. Fourteen years after his discharge, Gray began to reread his war journals and letters in an attempt to find some meaning in his wartime experiences. The result is The Warriors, a philosophical meditation on what warfare does to us and an examination of the reasons soldiers act as they do. Gray explains the attractions of battle—the adrenaline rush, the esprit de corps—and analyzes the many rationalizations made by combat troops to justify their actions. In the end, Gray notes, “War reveals dimensions of human nature both above and below the acceptable standards for humanity.”

Manorama Yearbook 2013 with Free Encylopaedia Britannica CD-ROM


Mammen Mathew - 1959
    

The Shakespearean Ethic


John Vyvyan - 1959
    Appreciating the danger Shakespeare faced in writing at a time of major religious intolerance, this fresh examination demonstrates how subtly his plays allegorically explore aspects of the perennial philosophy. In doing so, it argues, Shakespeare raises the fundamental question of ethics. Both thought provoking and persuasive, this book also contrasts Hamlet with Measure for Measure and Othello with The Winter’s Tale in order to expose the dilemmas that confront its heroes.

The Land of Milk and Omelets


Ken Kraft - 1959
    

My Wicked, Wicked Ways


Errol Flynn - 1959
    In this highly readable, witty and colourful autobiography, reissued by Aurum Press in B-format using the original uncensored text, Flynn reveals himself and his remarkable life as he did nowhere else.

The Haunted Palace: A Life of Edgar Allan Poe


Frances Winwar - 1959
    

We Were There With Cortes and Montezuma


Benjamin Appel - 1959
    Story of Cortes and Montezuma

Käthe Kollwitz: Drawings


Herbert Bittner - 1959
    

Zen Buddhism


Anonymous - 1959
    An introduction to zen with stories, parables, and kon riddle told by the zen masters - with cuts from old chinese ink paintings.

George Catlin and the Old Frontier


Harold McCracken - 1959
    Dedication:"To all the documentary artist who left to us a realistic portrayal of the story of the Old West -- and especially to the pioneer and dean of them all, George Catlin."Harold McCracken

Runes: An Introduction


Ralph Warren Victor Elliott - 1959
    This book is intended to serve as an introduction to the study of runes in general and of English runic inscriptions in particular.

Kids Say the Darndest Things!


Art Linkletter - 1959
    KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS! includes the best of the unconsciously funny, everyday thoughts and reactions kids shared with kid-at-heart Art Linkletter on his long-running radio and television series House Party .Gems include tips for conjuring up a sibling: "Give Mommy a lot of real sweet food so she'll get fat -that's how you get a baby ";and hysterical observations: "Our pussycat has got some kittens and I didn't even know she was married. "Illustrated with cartoons by Charles Schulz (yes, that Charles Schulz) and with a new introduction by Bill Cosby, KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS! will prove as popular with the readers of today as it was when it first was published five decades ago.

Fifty Trees Of Indiana Blossom And Leaf Of The Tulip Tree State Tree Of Indiana


T.E. Shaw - 1959
    

The Golden Book Encyclopedia, Book 7: Ghosts to House Plants


Bertha Morris Parker - 1959
    

A Cartoon History of Architecture


Osbert Lancaster - 1959
    

The Miracle of the Mountain


Alden R. Hatch - 1959
    Brother Andre was a Canadian religious...a member of the Holy Cross Brothers who are a part of the Congregation of the Holy Cross...a Roman Catholic order. This book is about Brother Andre's life all the way through his death in 1937, and was partially written to help move Brother Andre along the path to sainthood in the church. The story also brings in his devotion to St. Joseph and his efforts to have a shrine built to St. Joseph on the slopes of Mount Royal in Montreal, where today there stands a magnificent Oratory. Published in 1959, there was no way the author could know that in October 2010 Brother Andre would become Saint Andre Bessette upon canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

Heirs and Rebels: Letters Written to Each Other and Occasional Writings on Music


Ralph Vaughan Williams - 1959
    Even so, the correspondence gives a vivid impression of their deep, excited, and continuing interest in each other's work."These fragments of a lifelong conversation on music show the changing conditions from the nineties, when German influence dominated the scene, to the early nineteen-thirties, when English music was a firmly eastablished and growing reality."The letters are supplemented by lectures and articles, unpublished or reprinted from sources long out of print."The book has been edited by Ursula Vaughan Williams and Imogen Holst."Price in U.K. Only, 16s. net

The Natural History of Love


Morton Hunt - 1959
    Primarily a history of emotional relationships between the sexes, it is for everyone who seeks a deeper understanding of the bond that unites men and women.

The Last Blue Mountain


Ralph Barker - 1959
    The 1957 expedition to Haramosh Peak in the Karakoram range in Pakistan is a tale of an expedition that has gone terribly wrong. It tells of three days and three nights without food or water as the climbers try and extricate one another from an icy grave.

Yandy


Donald Stuart - 1959
    The true story of a group of Aboriginal Australians in Western Australia who succeed in defying greedy station owners by staging a strike and proving that they can organize themselves and support their community, white-feller style.

Write the Short Short


Maren Elwood - 1959
    

Strength of Men and Nations: A Message to the USA vis-a-vis the USSR


William Ernest Hocking - 1959
    and the U.S.S.R. In this search he hopes for some common ground of "identical elements of purpose implied in human nature itself." --Henry L. Roberts review 1960, Of Men and Nations / Foreign Affairs

The Story Of Indonesia


Louis Fischer - 1959
    

Principles of Mechanics


John L. Synge - 1959
    We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Speech and the Development of Mental Processes in the Child: An Experimental Investigation


Alexander R. Luria - 1959
    

Why Can't The English?


Lesley Rowlands - 1959
    

The Sacred Bridge


Eric Werner - 1959
    what emerges is a rich and fascinating picture of two religious cultures....

F. H. Bradley


Richard Wollheim - 1959
    H. Bradley was the greatest of the Anglo-Hegelian metaphysicians and moralists of the late nineteenth century. But for many philosophers today his reputation as the chief pillar of the classical tradition of philosophy has never recovered from the attacks of Russell, G. E. Moore and later empiricists. In this Peregrine Richard Wollheim argues that much twentieth-century criticism of Bradley has been misconceived: for his idealism rested less on extravagant speculation than on a theory of thought and symbolism which was itself an attempt to deal with certain general problems of meaning that are still very relevant today.

Everglades: The Park Story


William B. Robertson - 1959
    

Thomas Jefferson and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ


John J. Stewart - 1959
    

The Council of Florence


Joseph Gill - 1959
    The existence of the Council, which operated in various forms from 1431 until the mid-fifteenth century, constituted a key event in the history of the Church, the repercussions of which can be seen in the development of the Reformation. Whilst previous accounts had analysed the Council in a generalised manner or concentrated on specific aspects, this was the first extended study of its operations. Consummately researched, this book will be of value to anyone with an interest in ecclesiastical history.

Mathematics in Everyday Things


William C. Vergara - 1959
    

How to Decorate for and with antiques


Ethel Hall Bjerkoe - 1959
    

Fallacies in Mathematics


E.A. Maxwell - 1959
    'The general theory is that a wrong idea may often be exposed more convincingly by following it to its absurd conclusion than by merely announcing the error and starting again. Thus a number of by-ways appear which, it is hoped, may amuse the professional, and help to tempt back to the subject those who thought they were losing interest.' The standard of knowledge expected is fairly elementary. In most cases a straightforward statement of the fallacious argument is followed by an exposure in which the error is traced to the most elementary source, and this process often leads to an analysis which is often of unexpected depth. Many students will discover just how mathematically minded they are when they read this book; nor is that the only discovery they will make. Teachers of mathematics in schools and technical schools, colleges and universities will also be sure to find something here to please them.

Radio Handbook


William I. Orr - 1959
    It studies HF, VHF, and UHF spectrums, covers theory and equipment design in detail, and explains construction techniques.