As Bilbo Baggins takes his final voyage to the Undying Lands, he must say goodbye to Middle-earth. Poignant and lyrical, the song is both a longing to set forth on his ultimate journey and a tender farewell to friends left behind. Pauline Baynes’s jewel-like illustrations lushly depict both this final voyage and scenes from The Hobbit, as Bilbo remembers his first journey while he prepares for his last.

    He was born Gibran Khalil Gibran in Lebanon (at the time a Syrian Province of the Ottoman Empire) and spent much of his productive life in the United States. While most of Gibran's early writings were in Syriac and Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. Gibran also took part in the New York Pen League, also known as the "immigrant poets" (al-mahjar), alongside other important Lebanese American authors such as Ameen Rihani ("the father of Lebanese American literature"), Mikhail Naimy and Elia Abu Madi. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of 26 poetic essays, first written in English in 1923. The Prophet remains famous to this day, having been translated into more than 20 languages. Other works in English include: Spirits Rebellious, (1908), The Broken Wings (1912), A Tear and a Smile (1914), The Forerunner (1920), Sand and Foam (1926), Jesus the Son of Man (1928), The Earth Gods (1929), The Wanderer (1932) and The Garden of the Prophet (1933).

    This special edition celebrates a true master of the short-story form by including multiple variant drafts of what would eventually be the title story. In a fascinating accompanying essay, "Building the Monkey House: At Kurt Vonnegut's Writing Table," noted Vonnegut scholar Gregory D. Sumner walks readers through Vonnegut's process as he struggles—false start after false start—to hit upon what would be one of his greatest stories. The result is the rare chance to watch a great writer hone his craft in real time.

    

    Eliot for his godchildren and friends in the thirties. They have delighted generations of children since, and inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's brilliant musical Cats.

    

    He demonstrates how hero stories continue to shape our world – arguing that we need them now more than ever.From the Stone Age to the Greek Tragedies, from Shakespeare to Robin Hood, we have always had our heroes. The hero is at the centre of formative myths in every culture and persists to this day in world-conquering books, films and TV shows. But why do these characters continue to inspire us, and why are they so central to storytelling?Scalpel-sharp on the roots of storytelling and enlightening on the history and science of myth, The Hero is essential reading for anyone trying to write or understand fiction. Child teaches us how these stories still shape our minds and behaviour in an increasingly confusing modern world, and with his trademark concision and wit, demonstrates that however civilised we get, we’ll always need heroes.

    

    Book annotation not available for this title.

    Illustrated with playful photographs of animals, BTG's insightful prose again hits his target straight on. He muses about why we're here and our greater purpose in the grand scheme of things. His informal style provides a refreshing counterpoint to what has always been one of life's big debates. For example, when it comes to discovering your passion, BTG writes, "First, no one else will tell you about it - it's just like walking around all day with a sign on your back that says KICK ME." The Meaning of Life is a witty, thought-provoking book that makes an ideal gift for anyone who's seeking their true purpose-and wants to laugh along the way.

    Fine art, and book illustrations from Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, Richard Dadd, Henry Fuseli, Sir John Everett Millais, William Blake, Noel Paton, and William Holman Hunt will grace the pages of this elegant edition. With beautiful four-color art, and a whimsical design, Shakespeare on Love will make a timeless gift.

    Over the past eight decades, Batman has remained at the forefront of popular culture, which is in no small part because of this comic book series that is synonymous with the Dark Knight! Celebrate Detective Comics with DC, as we revisit classic stories from comics from the 1930s onward, featuring some of Batman's greatest allies and villains and work from some of the greatest creators ever to grace the graphic-literature medium!With a new cover by DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee. Curated by guest editor Paul Levitz, it features reprints of the Dark Knight’s most memorable adventures, from his first appearance to the debuts of Robin, Batwoman, Bat-Mite and Batgirl, as well as villains including Two-Face, the Riddler, Clayface, Man-Bat and more. This hardcover also spotlights crime-fighters including Slam Bradley, Air Wave, the Boy Commandos, the Martian Manhunter and the 1970s Manhunter, Paul Kirk!And, published for the first time anywhere: a new tale of a traumatic early moment in Bruce Wayne’s life written by Paul Levitz with art by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz, and an extraordinary look at a long-ago work in progress—the original layouts for the Batman tale from DETECTIVE COMICS #200, as illustrated by Lew Sayre Schwartz (and signed “Bob Kane”). As if that’s not enough, this volume includes essays on Batman from contributors including Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Glen David Gold, Dennis O’Neil, former San Diego police chief Shelley Zimmerman and pulp historian Anthony Tollin. This is sure to be the celebration of the year!

    Evocative and vivid descriptions of the early stages of the conflict populate these pages, from which the reader can gain lessons of the conditions of the stagnant front.Originally published in 1915, the set of tales within this book offer sobering accounts from various battlefields which took place during the early stages of the war. Although the war was not even halfway over by the time these stories found publication, the horrors of the conflict were already a fact of life, with casualties rapidly mounting on both sides.At that time public opinion hadn’t yet fully turned against the war, and in Britain – the nationality of all the soldiers here – the need for showing progress was essential to sustain civilian and military morale. All of the soldiers in these pages were already serving in their regiments, or had volunteered for service, when the war commenced. They were commonly professional soldiers, possessed of a natural – even ingrained - patriotism, and more accepting of the official narrative than the increasingly sceptical and fearful citizenry back home. There is however no doubt that many were already disillusioned, and that the stories here are taken from an already thinning group of soldiers still possessed of some shred of belief in the war as a noble, or even glorious, conflict.Despite the mood which underpins the pages here, one can read between the lines for a picture. The stories are honest: thing got worse between those elated first weeks wherein the French welcomed their allies so gladly, and the war that was to be over by Christmas 1914 was nowhere near ending, and it is in these stories that we witness the germinal seeds of disillusion and hatred of conflict. The majority of the illustrations which originally accompanied these accounts prioritise the heroism of their subjects, while a few offer a toned down presentation of the horrific battlefields. In this modern edition, we include a number of relevant photographic illustrations alongside the original drawings which accompanied the stories when they were first published. While the imagery of World War I is generally quite ingrained in our minds, these supplementary pictures are designed as on-the-spot reminders of how war was more than a century ago, as well as to provide demonstration of the weapons and technology of the era.

    Commentary (stories not included). Pages: 37. Chapters: 1408, 1922, A Good Marriage, A Very Tight Place, All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, Apt Pupil, Autopsy Room Four, Ayana, Battleground, Beachworld, Big Driver, Blind Willie, Blockade Billy, Cain Rose Up, Chattery Teeth, Children of the Corn, Crouch End, Dedication, Dolan's Cadillac, Everything's Eventual, Graduation Afternoon, Graveyard Shift, Gray Matter, Harvey's Dream, Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, Here There Be Tygers, Home Delivery, I've Got to Get Away, I Am the Doorway, I Know What You Need, In the Deathroom, It Grows On You, Jerusalem's Lot, L.T.'s Theory of Pets, Luckey Quarter, Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, Memory, Morality, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Mute, My Pretty Pony, N., Never Look Behind You, Night Surf, Nona, One for the Road, Popsy, Premium Harmony, Quitters, Inc., Rainy Season, Rest Stop, Riding the Bullet, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Secret Window, Secret Garden, Slade, Sneakers, Sometimes They Come Back, Stationary Bike, Suffer the Little Children, Survivor Type, That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, The Beggar and the Diamond, The Blue Air Compressor, The Body, The Boogeyman, The Breathing Method, The Cat From Hell, The Cursed Expedition, The Death of Jack Hamilton, The Doctor's Case, The End of the Whole Mess, The Fifth Quarter, The Gingerbread Girl, The Guns of Deschain, The House on Maple Street, The Jaunt, The Langoliers, The Last Rung on the Ladder, The Lawnmower Man, The Ledge, The Library Policeman, The Little Sisters of Eluria, The Man Who Loved Flowers, The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands, The Man in the Black Suit, The Mangler, The Mist, The Monkey, The Moving Finger, The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates, The Night Flier, The Other Side of the Fog, The Raft, The Reach, The Reaper's Image, The Reploids, The Road Virus Heads North, The Sun Dog, The Ten O'Clock People, The Thing at the Bottom o...

    But no matter what his subject, Mr. White always writes about it in a prose that is a joy to read."--New York Times