Bøger af Paul Rich

Professor Robert Langdon, in Dan Brown's thriller, tells his Harvard class, "My friends, it is impossible to overstate the influence of Dante Alighieri's work. Throughout all of history, with the sole exception perhaps of Holy Scripture, no single work of writing, art, music, or literature has inspired more tributes, imitations, variations and annotations than The Divine Comedy. Edmund Gardner was one of the great Dante scholars of his time and an astute guide to the background to Dan Brown's adventures with Dante.

Few people connect Endicott House, the famous conference center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with fishing in Florida, but actually the handsome mansion that has been the site of so many notable meetings is a bricks-and-mortar memorial to one of America's most enthusiastic sports fishermen, Wendell Endicott. This book is his magnum opus, an important piece of Florida history and a lasting contribution to folklore and fishing in the Keys.

Arnold Bennett wrote thirty novels but has been somewhat neglected by modern critics. He was ahead of his time in appreciating Joyce, Lawrence, Faulkner and Hemingway. His work is characterized by social irony without bitterness, and satire without nastiness. As this novel suggests, perhaps he has more in common with E.M. Forster than has been realized.

Edward Gordon Craig was an artist philosopher whose daring stage sets were many years ahead of their time and whose theories about the use of masks in theater remain startling even today. His work with bookplates is too little remembered, but the designs are a wonderful introduction to his aesthetic theories and his experiments with light and shadow, as this unique volume illustrates.

Possibly the formal study of book plates can be dated to the work of Lord de Tabley in the 1880s. He attempted a schema of British plates, starting with the pre-Reformation period and identifying Jacobean, Queen Anne and Georgian styles. Plates as a reflection of the times have continued to multiply and, with the advent of the ebook, a growing number of plates are appended to electronic books. Royal bookplates, as this volume illustrates, are an important aspect of the subject. A Guide to the Study of Book-Plates (Ex-Libris), by Lord de Tabley (then the Hon. J. Leicester Warren M.A.) was published in 1880 in London by John Pearson of 46 Pall Mall. The book established what is now accepted as the general classification of styles of British ex-libris: early armorial (previous to Restoration, exemplified by the Nicholas Bacon plate); Jacobean, a somewhat misleading term, but distinctly understood to include the heavy decorative manner of the Restoration, Queen Anne and early Georgian days (the Lansanor plate is Jacobean); Chippendale (the style above described as rococo, tolerably well represented by the French plate of Convers); wreath and ribbon, belonging to the period described as that of the urn, &c.

The Pearl Harbor attack, which launched United States participation in World War II, has been the subject of endless speculation as to how much President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance about Japanese intentions, about the state of readiness of American forces in Hawaii, and about the handling of raw intelligence that might have spurred the American military to preparations. The attack itself was the subject of enormously interesting reports from reporters in the field. These were originally produced in a very limited circulation collection, which is here presented as original material for the study of one of history's pivotal moments.

James Martineau was for more than four decades a professor in what is now Oxford's Harris Manchester College. His theology integrates the very personal in religious experience with the transcendent and seeks to infuse daily living with the sense of divinity. He retained a sense of awe which rationalism sometimes excludes, and in some ways anticipated Albert Schweitzer's ideas of reverence for life. Notably, Schweitzer also had connections with Harris Manchester.

The reader with a curiosity about the secrets of Freemasonry is confronted with a vast and eccentric literature, much of which is highly fanciful and often completely fictional. Finding books that have their feet on the ground, so to speak, is not easy. This is one, solid and truthful, and a good starting place for the curious who wonder about the world's most celebrated discrete society.

William Atherton DuPuy was a well-known naturalist who wrote anecdotally and personally about nature in ANIMAL FRIENDS AND FOES, INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES, THE NATION'S FORESTS, and PLANT FRIENDS AND FOES. In another vein he authored GREEN KINGDOM, his account of the life of a forest ranger, and controversially produced HAWAII AND ITS RACE PROBLEM. He also wrote for Harper's and had a connection with the Department of the Interior and, less happily, with the military's chemical warfare projects.

Sir Alfred Rawlinson, the son of a famous Orientalist and envoy to Persia, was himself a pioneer aviator, celebrated sportsman, and important British intelligence officer. As a colonel in the British intelligence corps, he played a significant role in the Middle East. His capture, imprisonment, and unhappy deprivations at the hands of the Turks was in its time a celebrated incident. Since the concept of Orientalism was popularized by Edward Said, the notion that views of the Muslim world were colored and slanted by Western prejudices has revised attitudes of the British imperial cadre that were such an influence on the region. Lawrence of Arabia and his contemporaries have been much more closely scrutinized than they were by earlier generations of scholars. So Sir Alfred's book can be read both as an eyewitness account of a highly formative era and for his attitudes so candidly expressed in this still exciting book.

Dr. Paul Rich is a member of the History of Education Society and the author of several books about education, including titles about the interaction of education and imperialism in the days of colonialism -- Elixir of Empire and Chains of Empire

Que los dibujos sean de la vida en Mexico no es sorprendente porque Juarez esta con stante y a veces traviesamente poniendo arte en la vida y obteniendo arte de la vida. No piensa que el arte sea algo que se produzca solamente en un estudio, o para tal caso, que deba ser mantenido en un museo y visto los domingos. Toma un plato en la cena y traza un boceto en el. Ve un espacio cercano a un area esco lar de juegos y quiere hacer una escultura que lo ocupe para que los ninos puedan jugar en ella. De manera importante, sus bocetos en este libro reflejan, como lo hacen sus esculturas, no sólo su espontaneidad sino su habilidad para comprender intelectualmente y perpetuar la esencia de lo que ve. Los dibujos son tanto espontáneos como intelectuales, lo que no es poca cosa. Eso indudablemente es magia. That the drawings here are from life in México is not surprising because Juárez is constantly, and at times impishly, putting art into life and getting art from life. He doesn't think of art as some thing that is done just in a studio or for that matter kept in museums and looked at on Sundays. He seizes a plate at dinner and does a sketch on it. He sees a space next to school playground and wants a sculpture occupying it that the children can play upon. Importantly, his sketches in this book reflect, as do his sculptures, not only this spontaneity but his ability to intellectually grasp and perpetuate the essence of what he sees. The drawings are both spontaneous and intellectual, which is no mean feat. It is indeed magic.