Literature / Essays

New York, New York, U.S.A.: E P Dutton, 2003. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Photographs. Everyone knows about the Nobel Prizes, those prestigious awards that recognize the world's most talented and innovative minds. Unfortunately, not all of the hopeful thinkers and academics areound the globe can become Nobel Laureates, but some are lucky enough to win the esteemed Ig Nobel Prize instead. Their unbelievable accomplishments are now documented in glorious detail, in this book. Drawn from the world's wackiest actual achievements in science, economics, and peace, The Ig Nobel Prizes demonstrates the extreme measures people will take in the quest for knowledge. Read about the professor who proved that toast falls butter-side-down more often than not, and the Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, which devised a formula to determine how many Alabamans will go to Hell. This hilarious book features these endeavors and many more, along with photographs from the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies at Harvard University. An Ig Nobel Prize is ideal for anyone who first wants to laugh and then wants to think. 240 pages including appendices and an index. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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New York, New York, U.S.A.: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 2004. First American Edition. Hard Cover. New/Very Good. This book is an idiosyncratic and indespensable guide to history's most - and least - memorable characters. Inspired by the author's believe that "oddballs, headbangers, saints, nutters, philosophers, freaks and such like deserve to be drawn away from the periphery to the center of our consciousness." Gods, Mongrels and Demons uses the famous, the infamous and the apparently marginal to tell us more about ourselves and our cultures than we'd find in the usual history book fare. With this book, Angus Calder has created an original, eccentric and richly entertaining work of reference for readers of all stripes. 438 pages including an index. The book is arranged alphabetically by name and has more information than one would expect on most entries. The jacket is worn at the corners and has minor bends at the spine ends. There is one 1/4" tear at the top right corner. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Winchester, MA: Faber & Faber, 1992. Unknown. Hard Cover. New/New. Novelist Joe Coomer was living in a small converted garage with his wife Heather when he undertook to build their first real home - a magnificent Queen Anne Victorian. As Joe built, so he wrote. Dream House follows the day-to-month construction of their home, from foundation to fretwork, through the long Texas days of shovel to earth, hammer to nail, dream to actuality. Spirited, meticulous, honest, this is a wonderfully readable book that conveys all the frustrations and triumphs of doing-it-yourself - and a strong sense of what makes a home home. 195 pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute Press, 2006. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Much of what we call the developing world has stopped developing, while growth in other regions has slowed. As a result, billions of people remain trapped in poverty, despite decades of foreign aid and lending by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank. In the past, economists prescribed liberalization and privatization to governments seeking to improve their economic performance. But dissatisfaction with these remedies in many countries left policymakers searching for new methods to jumpstart growth. In this book Kenneth Dam explores the newly ascendant view that institutions - in particular, the rule of law - play a critical role in determining which economies thrive and which lag behind. The author explains what policymakers need to know about the relationship between legal institutions and economic growth. Dam uses an extended analysis of China to assess the importance of the rule of law. This case study illustrates several of the book's central themes, including the difficulting of building a strong, independent judiciary and a first-class financial sector. 323 pages with index, references, and footnotes. 33 pages are cut short at the top; doesn't affect reading. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Charlottesville, VA: CAP Charitable Foundation, 2006. Unknown. Hard Cover. New/New. Lambertson, Andre; Rodriguez, Joseph; Williams III, Clarence J.. Conceived and funded by the CAP Charitable Foundation, the Ron Brown Scholar Program was envisioned as far more than an end-point or reward for promising students: it is the beginning of the next generation of African-American leaders and thinkers, a lifelong community of talented individuals brought together not only to excel in their chosen fields at prestigious universities but, beyond their student years, to identify and address the most critical issues of concern to all black Americans. Readers will find in this book personal stories and perspectives of students as they wrote them for the application process during their senior years in high school. Each serves as a testament to the ideals of the Ron Brown Scholar Program and the promise for a brighter tomorrow. Black cloth, 128 pages including an index of scholars 1997 - 2005. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. more information

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New York: W W Norton & Co Inc., 2006. Stated First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. A sharp examination of the idea of liberty in the modern, democratic state. . .Liberty is fortunate to have such a reasoned and persuasive voice as its champion." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review). How has the modern welfare state redefined our notion of individual liberty. Are we free to express ourselves in speech, at work, or through sex? In this book, the fourth volume in Norton's ongoing "Issues of our Times" series, Fried shepherds the reader through an elegant, wide-ranging, erudite, at times challenging (both intellectually and politically) but always concrete and relevant discussion of this core American value. He passionately argues why we should place liberty - the freedom "of a man to live his own life as he (thinks) best" - above competing values such as beauty, glory, virtue of one sort or another, and even equality, and shows how each of these values can be and have been used to subvert our personal freedoms. Richly illustrated with examples from contemporary life, Modern Liberty is vividly relevant to the experiences and needs of everyday Americans. 217 pages including notes and an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Cambridge, MA: Suhrkamp Publishers, 1986. Hard Cover. New/New. Still in publisher's plastic. "Among Goethe's essays and commentaries, those on visual art are lucid, pithy statements that exhibit a romantic concern for understanding individual artistic expression in conjunction with an environment and a transient historic moment. He reveals himself as one of the first "modern" art historians - and wrestles with problems of comparative quality, of the relationship of technical procedure to subject matter and level of artistic meaning. Goethe's brief formulations, stated so simply, answer profound questions and raise others that still remain today." Richard Shiff, Professor of Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 268 pages, cloth bound. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York, NY, U.S.A.: Knopf Publishing Group, 1998. 4th Printing. Trade Paperback. Near Fine/No Jacket. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this memoir written by Katharine Graham became a #1 National Bestseller. She was the woman who piloted the Washington Post through the crises of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. But here is the awkward child who grew up amid material wealth and emotional isolation; the young bride who watched her brilliant husband - confidant to JFK and LBJ - plunge into the world of mental illness that would culminate in his suicide. And here is the widow who shook off her brief insecurity to take on a president and a pressman's union as she entered the profane boy's club of the newspaper business. A fascinating read! 642 pages, including an index and 32 pages of photographs. There is a small cut on the lower right corner of the binding and a faint crease across the front. No marks or tears. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York, New York, U.S.A.: New York Univ Pr, 1998. No Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. For most of the 20th century, social thinkers devoted their attention mainly to the issues of economic class. They generally dismissed the more primordial bonds of racial, ethnic, and national anachronisms that either communism or the liberal frameworks of democracy would dissolve. Today, communism is nearly dead and liberalism is on the wane. At the same time, older ethno-racial tribalisms, along with some newly invented ones, have shattered our illusions of a rationally manageable world. They find expression in the chauvanistic nationalisms, multicultarist ideologies, vicious civil wars, "ethnic cleansing" of whole regions, intensified racial and ethnic strife, a resurgence of prejudice, scapegoating, hate groups, and nativism as well as new group-based challenges to the individualistic focus of Western liberalism. Bringing together prominent historians, socialists, and political scientists, New Tribalisms examines early conceptions of race and ethnic pluralism in the United States. The volume also confronts some of the causes, implications, and possible outcomes of resurgent tribalisms in the country and around the world. 373 pages including notes on the contributors and an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ Press, 2002. Unknown. Soft Cover. New. New, still in publishers plastic. As science penetrates the secrets of nature, with each discovery generating new questions, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will sound its note of warning. Many scientific developments have provoked references to Frankenstein, a story that, for nearly two centuries, has gripped our imaginations and haunted our nightmares. How can society balance the benefits of medical discoveries against the ethical or spiritual questions posed? Lavishly illustrated, this volume highlights Shelley's novel, focuses on the redefinition of the Frankenstein myth in popular culture, and examines the continuing power of this story to articulate present-day concerns raised by new developments in biomedicine such as cloning and xenografting. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Pantheon, 2001. Stated First edition. Hardcover. New/New. In From the Briarpatch File - a gathering of erudite, provocative, and iconoclastic essays, reviews, and interviews - Albert Murray approaches contemporary America through its artistic expressions of itself and through the inventiveness of his own thinking and experience. He writes about New York in the 1920s and about the beginnings of his career as a writer. He gives us profound assessments of the achievements of Duke Ellington and William Faulkner. He outlines the responsibilities of the black educated elite and discusses the near-tragic, near-comic essence of the blues. His subject is no less than the life of America today; the clarity of the singularity of his vision, thought, and language are no less than stunning. 195 pages. 5 1/4" x 8 1/4" more information

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Cumberland, Maryland, U.S.A.: Portfolio Press, 1999. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Gardiner, Lynton. Doll collectors and scholars alike will welcome this colection of 35 articles by the renowned John Darcy Noble, curator emeritus of the prestigious Toy Collection at the Museum of the City of New York. This group of articles focuses on some of Mr. Noble's favorite antique dolls. Gathered her for the first time every, these articles cover a wide range of important antiques, from the very earliest rare 17th- and 18th-century woodens to the popular 19th-century china heads, mysterious English waxes and the classic, precious French Bisques. Mr. Noble pays equal homage to homemade cloth creations and paper dolls of the past, finding them evocative examples of folk art, and a key to understanding social history. This unprecedented volume constitutes the first appearance of his work in book form since the 1971 publication of A Treasury of Beautiful Dolls. Enter the magical world of John Darcy Noble, a world in which play and playthings are regarded with rich insight, extraordinary perspective and delightful flair. 144 pages, bound in cloth and well-illustrated with wonderful full-color photographs. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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Seattle, WA: Univ. of Washington Pr, 2001. First edition. Hardcover. New/New. For centuries, aboriginal people throughout the Arctic regions of the world have depended on seals for their survival. In this book, acclaimed writer David Pelly describes all facets of the seal hunt, beginning with the respect for seals underlying the hunt. This respect is reflected in myths, legends, rituals, and traditions of the Arctic peoples, extending to the very creation of seals according to the legend of Nuliajuk. Pelly's lucid and informative text, based on years of traditional knowledge research is augmented by archival photographs and photos of Inuit sculpture, drawings, and etchings showcasing the importance of Arctic seals in Inuit culture. The result is a provocative and moving portrait of the tradition hunt and of the spiritual link between Inuit and Arctic seals. 126 pages with bibliography and index. 6 1/4" x 8" tall more information

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New York: W W Norton & Co Inc., 1999. First Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. Drawings. This book contains many essays on literature, education, and the arts. It is written based on Shattuck's seminal "Nineteen Theses" and form the philosophical basis of this volume. A few of these theses are: Across millions of years we have evolved a fairly stable human nature, which contains an elusive element of freedom; Literature ranges from simple songs and saying to elaborate and extended tales of human deeds; Works that have survived for centuries cannot be dismissed out of hand; Nothing will survive unless it has been uttered; We teach what we hope to learn; In a free society, the primary role of education is the transmission of a heritage, not its primary subversion; There is no literary "canon." Tastes and curricula keep changing. It is our love of literature that remains constant. From these, three major sections unfold: Intellectual Craftsmanship, A Critic's Job of Work, and America, Africa, and Elsewhere, in which several essays address individual personalities, including O'Keefe and Stieglitz, Man Ray, Leopold Senghor, Octavio Paz, Arthur Miller, and others. 415 pages including credits, source of illustrations, and an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. No Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. Photographs. This book brings together for the first time a selection of trailblazing essays by Ella Shohat, an internationally renowned theorist of postcolonial and cultural studies. Written over the past two decades, these twelve essays - some classic, some less known, some new - trace a powerful intellectual trajectory as Shohat rigorously teases out the consequences of a deep critique of Eurocentric epistemology. This volume not only illuminates many of the concerns that have animated the study of cultural politics over the past two decades, it also points toward new scholarly possibilities. 406 pages including notes and an index; illustrated with black & white photographs. There is a light vertical bend to the cover and the six first pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2005. First Printing. Hard Cover. New/New. Mark Siegel is an articulate voice of reason in a world beset by hype and hysteria. We would be well advised to listen to listen closely to what he has to say."-Jerome Groopman, M.D., staff writer, The New Yorker. Life today for citizens of the developed world is far safer, easier, and healthier than for any other people in history. Modern medicine has all but wiped out many diseases that once were common killers. Modern intelligence gathering can pinpoint threats to our domestic security as they arise. So why is an epidemic of fear sweeping America? The answer, according to the author, is that we live in an artificially created culture of fear. From the anthrax panic to the SARS "epidemic," and the West Nile virus - the media continually bombard us with breaking news of yet another super-bug, terrorist plot, or natural disaster that's about to wreak havoc. Most of the time the disasters never materialize. Even if they did, the odds that any of us would suffer harm is infinitesimally small - especially when compared to the much greater risks of dying in a car accident of from heart disease. This book shows how fearmongers manipulate our most primitive instincts - often without our even realizing it - to promote their political agendas, boost their ratings, and sell their products. 246 pages including a bibliography and index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1994. First Printing. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Fine. The author examines the work of 6 antislavery writers from 19th century Cuba. Recognizing that these slave narratives represent the fledgling articulations of an emerging black voice, and also lay the foundation for 20th century Afro-Hispanic literary expression, she analyzes the authenticity of the slave protagonists' testimony - both in its content and mode of expression. Believing that a major discrepancy exists between the descriptions of slavery in works by writers of African descent and in works by others, the author argues that some antislavery writers were driven by their own personal agendas which often romanticized slavery, rather than by the realities of bondage. 220 pages with bibliography and index. The ffep has a bit of a sticker on it. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Carlsbad, California, U.S.A.: Mountain Movers Press, 2001. Second Printing. Hard Cover. New/New. Photographs. In this book, Montel Williams brings you 12 stories of extraordinary individuals and families. As these accounts reveal, there are as many paths to faith as there are individuals to travel those paths, and one of the goals of this book is to highlight just a few of the compelling ways in which people have answered their own call. Taken together, these portraits of hope, grit, and faith present a larger picture of the contemporary human condition, filtered through the inimitable lens of one of the most empowering and compassionate television personalities in the country. 219 pages, illustrated throughout with black & white photographs. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York, NY, U.S.A.: Simon and Schuster, 1999. First Edition. Hard Cover. As New/As New. With her trademark humor and insight, the author has written a moving collection of stories, anecdotes, and poems that remind us of the life lessons we learn as we repaint, refurnish, and redecorate in search of a place to settle down. Here are all the paths to our dream houses. . .and to the lives and loves we make there. It's been said that no woman ever met a man or a house she couldn't make over, but this wise little book shows us that what we are really making over is ourselves. The back of the dust jacket has very light rubbing. 190 pages, no marks or tears. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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New York: Hyperion Books, 2008. Eleventh Printing. Hardcover. New/New. A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question. When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave - "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" - wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment. It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come. 206 pp. 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" tall more information

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