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168pp with approx 80 high quality rich colour - many full page - illus, plus plans and
double-page map of Venice. After an overview introduction, the author considers
'The Precursors : Alberti, Bramante, Sangallo, and Palladio's "Soft Harmony" '.
'From Stonemason to Serenissima's architect : Palladio's progress towards his
Venetian destiny.' £19.50 |
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xvi + 493pp with map and 61 b/w archive photo illus. "Robert Byron, who died young in the War (WWII), was the foremost travel writer of his age, acclaimed especially for 'The Road to Oxiana'. He was also a pioneer of Byzantine history, fought to save Georgian London, and was one of the first voices raised against fascism. Patrick Leigh Fermor readily admitted to being under his spell, and to Nancy Mitford he was the funniest man alive. This is the first biography of him ; it draws on his unique archive and throws fascinating new light on the gilded circle of which he was part. Byron found his voice at Eton the early 1920's, sparring with Harold Acton and Brian Howard, Anthony Powell and Henry Green, and at Oxford where he was one of the gilded set immortalized by Evelyn Waugh. A life of travel followed ; it took him to the monastic republic of Mount Athos, to Lutyen's New Delhi, to the theocracy of Tibet. It was in Persia and Afghanistan that he forged the style of travel writing that remains dominant today. Clever and sensitive, he adored rows as much as gossip but nonetheless was irresistible to friends and rivals alike - not only the Mitfords but for instance John Betjeman, the Sitwells, and his editor Harold Macmillan. When the ship carrying him to Cairo was torpedoed, days before his 36th birthday in 1941, his friends mourned the loss of one of the brightest stars of their generation." Published at £25.00. Fine (new) cond : fine (new) cond d/w. 9 x 6 inches £ 10.00 |
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319pp with 15 colour plates and 95 b/w illus. This title was originally published in
1987 as "Mind Forg'd Manacles" by Athlone Press ; republished with the added
advantage of numerous illustrations, as noted above, following the untimely death of
Roy Porter in 2002. The author either edited or wrote approx 100 titles ; he was
acknowledged as one of the foremost experts on the history of medicine, and the
18th century period - his specialist subjects are combined in this book. "Best-selling
popular historian Roy Porter looks at the bizarre and savage practices of
mad-doctors treating those afflicted by 'manias', ranging from huge doses of opium,
blood-letting and cold-water immersion to beatings, confinement in cages and
blistering. The author reveals how Bethlem - the London asylum created to care for
the capital's mentally sick - was riddled with sadism and embezzlement, and if that
wasn't dehumanising enough, jeering, ogling sightseers were permitted entry - for a
fee of course" The book contains no less than 21 pages of cited bibliography as well
as being extensively indexed. £8.50 |
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xiv + 200pp with 17 b/w illus (maps etc). "This collection of essays focuses upon the development and historical importance of a range of key topographical writers who published work on South West England between c.1600 and 1900. In a series of self-contained chapters, a number of distinguished historians assess the value of the work of these early writers as a reliable record of the past. They provide not only a unique and important view from the perspective of contemporary observers of the changing landscape of the South West, but also an analysis of topographical writing as a genre. The writers are placed in their wider national and chronological context by an Introduction which discusses topographical writing in England and Wales (in general) and South-West England (in particular) in the period since the sixteenth century. The book includes a gazetteer of collections in Devon and Cornwall where copies of the works of local topographical writers can be found ; as well as an index of the works of major county historians, and accounts of travel and agricultural surveys. A most useful reference for those interested in West Country local history. Fine (new) cond trade paperback. 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches £5.00 |
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xxii + 215pp with b/w archive photo illus and pictorial map endpapers. "This
narrative gives the background to the building of the Discovery in Dundee,
examining links between whaling, polar ships, marine engineering, and polar ice
rescues. It recounts the remarkable exploits of Dundee's ice master, Captain Harry
McKay, whose experience of rescuing ships locked in pack ice with the aid of his
new explosive technique made him the Admiralty's choice to free Captain Scott
aboard Discovery from the fate in the Antarctic in 1904. The author's research in
Dundee, New Zealand, and Australia has uncovered unpublished material including
photographs and diaries from the two rescue ships and reveals for the first time how
Merchant Navy Captains - McKay of the Terra Nova and Colbeck of the Morning
- blasted 18 miles of ice to free Scott. It is one of the most incredible Antarctic feats
ever performed but it has been overlooked for close on a century. The book has a
darker side and tells how Discovery's inexperienced leader consigned the two
superbly and experienced captains, McKay and Colbeck, to oblivion and became a
national hero in their stead. It is a study in myth-making. Eye-witnesses contrast the
false heroics, boasting, paranoia and maniacal insistence on Royal Navy discipline
aboard Discovery with the work of the other two ship's captains, whose patient
progress in getting the job done was achieved with great skill and supreme
seamanship." £8.00 |
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xi + 212pp with 32 colour plate illustrations from paintings by Andrew Lorimer,
numerous b/w archive photo illus, and pictorial map endpapers. "A century ago life
in the Upper Tweed Valley was very different to that of today. This book, compiled
from notes made by Andrew Lorimer, describes his personal experience of a way
of life which had almost completely disappeared by the middle of the twentieth
century. He describes the life of shepherds, their families and children and the
hardships that were commonplace in the first part of the last century. He recalls his
schooldays at Tweedsmuir school and poignant memories of the First World War,
the arrival of the gramophone and fund-raising dances. Old methods of fishing and
peat digging are included as are descriptions of the natural life of the area. The
reader is introduced to people, places and events which combine to provide a
unique social history of the area at that time. Andrew Lorimer (1906-1996) spent
the greater part of his life in the Upper Tweed Valley, he developed a great love of
the countryside and its natural life. His powers of observation and remarkable
memory enabled him to build up an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area, its
history, people and way of life. He was a gifted artist and painted many pictures of
the beautiful countryside around him. After attending Tweedsmuir School he went
on to Peebles High School and then to Moray House College in Edinburgh where
he trained as a schoolteacher. A bout of tuberculosis interrupted his teaching career
but a complete recovery enabled him in 1938 to become head master of Whitekirk
School, East Lothian. In 1946 ill health forced him to leave the teaching profession
and he returned to the upper Tweed Valley to farm Mossfennan until he retired to
Peebles in 1976. His many interests filled his latter years, and between fishing,
painting, and gardening he started writing notes for a book which, unfortunately, he
never lived to complete." This is a quite exceptionalcollection of memories ; here are
the words of a man who truly lived life, a man who, as a schoolteacher, was able to
impart love of the country and country matters to his pupils. In a world where too
many twenty something minor celebrities has a memoir ghosted, even before they
have started to live a life, this book is a class apart and is highly recommended.
Originally published at £16.99. £8.00 |
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311pp. "The book illustrates how the Viking invasions and settlements have made a
lasting impact on the history, languages and cultures of Scotland and how from the
very beginning, Scotsmen made a distinct and important contribution to the
dissemination of Old Norse culture in Britain and played a significant role in the
creation of the notion of a Norse ethos. More importantly, the book illustrates in
detail how a consciousness of this Norse heritage has influenced nine major Scottish
writers of this century : Hugh MacDiarmid, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Neil Gunn, John
Buchan, Naomi Mitchison, David Lindsay, Eric Linklater, Edwin Muir and George
Mackay Brown, throwing new light on aspects of Scottish identity and literary
trends, especially in the period of the Scottish Rennaissance 1920-1950." Originally
published at £14.99. £ 7.50 |
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xxiii + 471pp with b/w illus and maps. "For the non-Muslim, Mecca is the most
forbidden of Holy Cities - and yet, in many ways it is the best known. Muslim
historians and geographers have studied it, and countless pilgrims and travellers -
many of them European Christians in disguise - have left behind lively and
well-publicised accounts of life in Mecca and its associated shrine-city of Medina,
where the Prophet lies buried. The stories of all these figures, holy men and heathens
alike, come together in this book to offer a literary portrait of the city's traditions and
urban life and of the surrounding area. Closely following the publication of F.E.
Peters's "The Hajj" (Princeton, 1994), which describes the perilous pilgrimage itself
from the travellers' perspectives, this collection of writings and commentary
completes the historical travelogue. The accounts begin with the Muslims
themselves, in the patriarchal age of Abraham and Ishmael, and trace the sometimes
glorious and sometimes sad history of Islam's central shrine down to the last Grand
Sharif of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, whose fragile kingdom was overtaken by the
House of Sa'ud in 1926. Because of chronic flooding and constant rebuilding, there
is little or no material evidence for the early history of Islam's holy cities. By
assembling, analyzing, and fashioning these literary accounts of Mecca, however,
Peters supplies us with a vivid sense of place and human interaction, much as he did
in his work "Jerusalem" (Princeton, 1985)." £ 17-50 |
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xiv + 318pp with maps and b/w archive photo illus. "Pozieres, according to British General Sir Henry Rawlinson was the key to the battle of the Somme. The tiny village and nearby windmill were objectives for the British Army on the opening day of the Somme, 1st July 1916. Twenty-three days and three major attacks later, that 'key' was turned by the Australian troops of the 1st Division. When the Australians withdrew three weeks later they had moved the front forward by 1500 metres. In so doing they had suffered more than 23,000 casualties. No battle in which Australian troops have taken part has ever exerted such a toll. Pozieres became the standard by which shellfire was judged. The bombardment, endured for days without end, sent men mad and stripped away the layers of convention and discipline that keep armies together. Some Australians deserted ; others shot themselves ; more went mad. The majority accepted death and mutilation as an inevitable consequence of duty. Pozieres is a story of strategic and tactical blunders, of the incompetent and ignorant generals, of untrained yet enthusiastic armies committed to attack without hope and without preparation. Peter Charlton describes the fighting from the point of view of the British and Australian generals who planned the attacks and from the soldiers and officers who did the fighting. Using much previously unpublished official and personal material, he recreates the lives and deaths of ordinary soldiers and examines the impact fighting had on the conscription referendum of 1916 that split the Australian Labor Party." Fine cond : fine cond d/w. 9 x 6 inches £12-50 |
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400pp with col. frontispiece, numerous b/w archive photo illus and 8 maps. "C.E.W. Bean was Australia's official correspondent at the First World War and subsequently its official historian. His own six volumes (of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918), covering the Gallipoli campaign and the Australian Imperial Force in France and Flanders, are unique among national war histories in that the author was actually present at almost all the battles he describes, gathering information at first hand and at great personal risk and supplementing his own observations by interviewing everyone he could from the commander-in-chief down through generals and their company commanders and junior officers to the men in the trenches. (This biography) reveals a remarkable man who was dedicated to the ideal of recording fully and accurately the Australian fighting men's part in the war ; a mild yet heroic man who was mentioned in dispatches for his work under fire on Gallipoli ; a "plain Australian", who refused a knighthood three times in later life because it went against his democratic principles." Fine cond : Fine cond d/w. 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches. £15-00 |
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vi + 257pp with b/w archive photo illus. "The author was at Rugby with Rupert Brooke, whose father was their housemaster. At Woolwich he was taught by Ernest Swinton. In the First World War he served on the staff of Sir Douglas Haig. The curiously mixed bag of people he met at that time included General Trenchard, Maurice Baring, Colonel Repington, Mrs Humphrey Ward and General Pershing. After the war General Cornwall became a member of the General Staff Delegation at the Peace Conference in Paris, where he worked with amongst others Richard Meinertzhagen, Allan Leeper, Harold Nicolson and T.E.Lawrence. (much else was to follow - trips to India in 1936, and Egypt on 1937-8, followed by duty with Western Command in World War II and even a spell arms dealing with Krishna Menon after the war - and there is much else more to retain the reader's attention). Fine cond : Fine cond d/w. 8 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches £10-00 |
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xix + 314pp with b/w archive photo illus. "T E (Thomas Ernest) Hulme was one of
the most original and striking personalities in England in the years immediately
preceeding the First World War. He was admired by, amongst others, Ezra Pound
and T.S. Eliot, who said that Hulme wrote 'two or three of the most beautiful short
poems in the English language' and that his thought was 'the forerunner of a new
attitude of mind, which should be the twentieth century mind'. Yet at the time of his
death in 1917, Hulme had published no book, and his name was virtually unknown.
Hulme had little affinity with what he saw as the sentimentality and parochialism of
English artistic activity in the first two decades of the century. He was, rather, a key
figure in the genesis of Modernism, and not only his own writings, but as a catalyst
for others. The painter C.R.W.Nevinson wrote that Hulme 'had the most wonderful
gift for knowing and mixing everyone', and besides Jacob Epstein (probably
Hulme's closest male friend). Gaudier-Brzeska, Pound, Wyndham Lewis, Ford
Madox Ford and Robert Frost, Hulme's Frith Street salon was populated by an
unlikely - and occasionally explosive - mixture of German, Italian and French writers
and artists. Throughout his life Hulme courted controversy. He had the rare
distinction of being sent down twice from Cambridge - once for his activities as a
leading member of the Discord Club, and once for attempting to seduce the under
age daughter of the President of the Aristotelian Society, whom he had met at a
philosophical conference in Bologna. He was a compulsive womanizer, and once
complained that the steel staircase of the emergency exit at Piccadilly Circus was the
most uncomfortable place he had ever copulated. Unusually, among poets of his
generation, he remained convinced of the rightness of Britain's role in the war, and
not long before his death openly attacked Bertrand Russell for his pacifism. This
remarkably, is the first modern biography of Hulme, and the first to make full use of
his papers, and interviews given later in their lives by those who had known him
well. It portrays a highly distinctive individual, his thought and his circle, and is an
important addition to our understanding of his times." £7.50
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xiv + 347pp with b/w illus. "This engrossing book tells the little-known story of why
a quarter-million Jews, survivors of death camps and forced labour, sought refuge in
Germany after World War II. Those who had ventured to return to Poland after
liberation soon found that their homeland had become a new killing ground where
some 1,500 Jews were murdered in pogroms between 1945 and 1947. Facing
death at home, and with Palestine and the rest of the world largely closed to them,
they looked for a place to be safe and found it in the shelter of the Allied
Occupation Forces in Germany. Bottled up for the next three years in displaced
persons camps, they created the most poignant - and the last - episode of Yiddish
speaking culture : a final incandescent moment that played itself out on German soil.
When the camps emptied in 1948 after the establishment of Israel and with special
legislation in the United States, the Jews dispersed. But the loss of their centre
meant the end of a thousand years of Eastern European Jewish culture. By 1950 a
little community of 20,000 Jews remained in Germany : 8,000 native German Jews
and 12,000 from Eastern Europe. Ruth Gay's enthralling account tells of their
contrasting lives in the postwar Germanies. After the fall of Communism, the Jewish
community was suddenly overwhelmed by tens of thousands of former Soviet Jews.
Now there are some 100,000 Jews in Germany. The old somewhat nostalgic life of
the postwar decades is being swept aside by radical forces from Lubavitcher at one
end to Reform and feminism at the other. What started in 1945 as a "remnant"
community has become a dynamic new centre of Jewish life." £6.50 |
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£ 6.50 |
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224pp inc index plus over 400 b/w archive photo illus."These photographs were not supposed to be seen. The Nazi order to destroy every personal photograph brought to every concentration camp was clear. Not only were the victims to be destroyed, but their memories were to be obliterated as well. Despite this, the cherished pre-war photographs of one transport to Aushwitz-Birkenau in 1943 escaped destruction. In October of 1986, more than four decades later, Ann Weiss entered a locked room at Auschwitz and came across an archive of over 2,400 photographs brought to the death camp by Jewish deportees from across Europe. The photos, both candid snapshots and studied portraits, had been confiscated, but instead of being destroyed they were hidden at great risk and saved. In many cases these pictures are the only remnants left of entire families.'The Last Album' is a collection of over 400 of these remarkable photographs. It traces the story of how they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau and how the author came to see them through what was essentially a fortuitous accident. In the years that followed, Weiss identified as many people and places in the photos as possible, traveling around the world to track down remaining family members and friends, and listening to stories of the inmates' lives before they were removed to the camp. Many of these accounts are transcribed here. When people think of the Holocaust, often the first thing thast comes to mind is the sadly familiar, horrific image of emaciated bodies and starving survivors. Although the photographs in this book were found at the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, they are bursting with life. We see babies; parents with their children; groups of teenagers; people at work, at school, at home, on vacation -- normal people leading normal lives.The photographs and reminiscences gathered here offer a rare and intensely personal view of who these individuals were and, most importantly, how they chose to remember themselves. Ann Weiss is the daughter of two survivors from Poland. She has worked as a researcher, writer, documentary filmaker and educator." Fine cond : fine cond d/w. 10 x 8 1/2 inches Limited supply - only £14-00 |
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352pp with b/w illus. This title was first published in 1982 : this second edition was
reissued in a new and larger format with many new entries and illustrations. It is
divided into eight sections: 1. Sovereigns : 2. Royal Consorts and Nobles : 3.
Statesmen, Politicians, and Warriors : 4. Churchmen, Philosophers. Lawyers and
Solicitors : 5. Scientists, Doctors, Businessmen, Engineers, and Industrialists : 6.
Authors, Playwrights and Poets : 7. Actors, Artists, and Musicians : 8. Explorers,
Sportsmen, Reformers, Outlaws, Heroines, Criminals and Miscellaneous. There is
also a geographical county by county check list to inform the traveller what grave he
might see in any particular area." £ 6-50 |
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Revolt in the North, Antrim and Down in 1798.
£ 9-00 |
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x + 341pp with b/w illus. "This anthology illustrates the progression of imperialist
and feminist attiutudes from different women's perspectives. On one hand there
were women like Josephine Butler, Millicent Fawcett and Dorothea Beale who
never went to India but regarded the emancipation of Indian women as an extension
of their own domestic campaigns. Their writings contrast with that of Mary
Carpenter, Flora Annie Steel and Annette Ackroyd Beveridge who visited or lived
and worked in India , engaging in activities specifically related to women's interests
and whose lives and political sympathies sometimes developed in different directions
from mainstream British feminism. Alongside these two groups were women like
Florence Nightingale, Harriet Martineau and Annie Besant whose interests were not
specifically focussed on the emancipation of Indian women, but rather on colonial
reform, politics and Indian people in general." Published at £ 20-00 |
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xviii + 474pp with b/w illus. "William Olaf Stapledon, is best remembered for the extraordinary works of speculative fiction he published between 1930 and 1950. As a novelist, he was known as the spokesman for the Age of Einstein and has influenced writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf, Arthur C. Clarke and Doris Lessing. This biography is the first to draw on a vast body of unpublished and private documents - interviews, correspondence papers, archival material, and papers in private hands - to reveal fully the internal struggles that shaped Stapledon's life, and reclaim for public attention a distinctive voice of the modem era. A pacifist in World War 1, an advocate of European unity and world government, one of the first teachers in the Workers' Educational Association, and an early protestor against apartheid, Stapledon turned utopian beliefs into practical politics. With roots in the shipping worlds of Devon, Liverpool and the Suez Canal, he was transformed from a self-described provincial on the margins of English literary and political life into a visionary idealist who attracted the attention of scientists, journalists and novelists, and given his left-wing affiliations, even the FBI. Stapledon's novels - "Last and First Men", "Star Maker", "Odd John" and "Sirius" - have gathered a passionate following and they have seldom been out of print in the last twenty-five years. But the personal experiences and the political commitments that shaped this creative work have until now, barely been known. Robert Crossley's work reveals how, in public and in private, in his social activism, as in his fiction, Olaf Stapledon embodied many of the modern era's anxieties and hopes that follow his works to continue to speak for the future." Fine cond : fine cond d/w. 9 x 6 inches Limited supply : now only £7.50 |
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xvi + 714pp with b/w illus. "This is the first literary biography of Nobel Prize-winning poet and dramatist Derek Walcott. It traces the creative contradiction in his life from colonial St. Lucia, where he is part of the tiny English-speaking Protestant mulatto elite in an overwhelmingly French Creole Roman Catholic black society, to 1999 when, a star of international literature and a symbol of cultural decolonization, he wanted to be Poet Laureate. The author has had access to letters, diaries, uncollected and unpublished writings, and conducted numerous interviews in the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. Walcott is seen as someone driven by the need to justify his life and fulfill his talents before an unknowable God, but who, in mastering the ways of the world, often regards himself as an example of fallen humanity. Besides offering an approach to Walcott as a poet, dramatist, theatre director, arts critic, and teacher, the book shows how his desire to be a painter influenced his vision and the way he works." Published at £30.00. Fine cond : fine cond d/w. 9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches £17.50 |
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xvii + 262pp with Somerset family tree and 18 b/w plates. "In the tumultuous
decades which followed the English civil war an extraordinary aristocratic couple,
Henry and Mary Somerset, the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, survived the social
upheaval by creating a remarkable partnership. Together, they worked to restore
their family's estates and political power base as well as their home, Badminton
House in Gloucestershire. They also sought to tame political and religious passions
and to bring order and stability to Restoration society, a goal which was shared by
many members of the landed classes. This fascinating book uses their story to
illuminate the profound cultural changes which took place after 1660. It also brings
to life Henry Somerset (1629-1700), and Mary Capel Somerset (1630-1715), two
complex and unique characters. Henry, third Marquis of Worcester and first Duke
of Beaufort, was a powerful regional magnate and an active member of Charles II's
Privy Council. The book recounts his activities in public life in England and Wales. It
also shows the Duke rebuilding his war-ravaged estates, contesting with his local
rivals and corresponding with his wife. Mary, meanwhile, distinguished herself in the
newly emerging science of botany by growing and propogating, an astonishing
variety of exotic plants, and finding personal salvation in the natural world. Offering
both an intimate portrait of a seventeenth-century marriage and an unusual view of
the early days of Enlightenment science and rationalism, this book will captivate a
wide selection of readers." Fine cond : fine cond d/w. 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches Now only £7.50 (published at £20.00) |
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288pp with b/w illus. "In today's climate of sexual political struggle, Celtic women
have been hailed by many feminists as role models for their own fight against
patriarchal consciousness. Recent scholarly debate, however, has turned the role of
a woman in ancient Celtic society into a contemporary background. Questions have
arisen as to whether the glorified image of emancipated Celtic women has any basis
in fact? Did women have equal rights of inheritance in primitive Celtic society? And
what of women in Celtic mythology ? Starting with Boudicca (Boadicea) one of the
most powerful historical Celtic female figures, Peter Berresford Ellis brings
coherence into this furious debate by doing what he does best - examining the case
in a scholarly and balanced manner. Drawing on literary, historical and mythological
evidence the author provides an informed and comprehensive perspective of Celtic
women in their society." £ 6-50 |
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104pp with 95 duotone (b/w) illustrations. This book is the first-ever overview of
Ellen Auerbach's photographic oeuvre from 1929 to 1965. examining the artist's
avant-garde influences and special sensibility for people and situations : it was
published to accompany a 1998 Berlin exhibition of the artist's work - the text is
written in both English and German. Ellen Auerbach (nee Rosenberg) died in New
York in July 2004 : Ellen Auerbach was born in 1906 and was taught by Walter
Peterhans, who later lectured on photography at the Bauhaus. "The pictures taken
during this period were heavily influenced by the avant-garde photographic trends
predominant at the end of the 1920's. In the years that followed, Ellen Auerbach's
own distinctive style emerged, reflecting her considerable intuitive sensitivity. These
often prosaic and timeless photographs document her feeling for people and
situations." The book includes an interview conducted by Susanne Baumann. In
1929 Ellen, with Grete Stern, opened the photo studio 'ringl + pit', specialising in
advertising photography and portraits. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the artist
decided to leave Germany for Tel-Aviv, accompanied by her future husband,
Walter Auerbach. In 1936, after the outbreak of the Abyssinian war : Ellen decided
to visit London, and for a short time teamed up again with Grete Stern. When Grete
Stern emigrated to Argentina, Ellen hoped to take over her London studio, but was
refused a work permit. In 1937 Ellen married Walter Auerbach and subsequently
settled in New York, where she later worked from part of the studio belonging to
the painter Fairfield Porter. In the ensuing years Ellen worked on a number of
different projects, most notably alongside fellow photographer, Eliot Porter, with
whom she visited Mexico in 1954/5. This monograph's pages are printed on 170
g/qm Luxomatt acid -free paper. Fine (new) cond : fine (new) cond d/w (copies
are supplied in publisher's original shrink-wrap). 12 x 10 inches £15.00 . |
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When we liked Ike : looking for postwar America £ 7-50 |
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x + 316pp with b/w frontispiece portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. "The focus of
this work is how Charlotte Perkins Gilman developed as a writer and how she
imagined a full-blown Utopia for women. This book, which offers a fresh reading of
Gilman's fiction, fills a void in Gilman scholarship, in feminist utopian scholarship and
in American literary studies. Kessler provides three journeys through Gilman's life:
"A Biographical Exploration" discusses facets of her life having a substantial impact
upon her utopian writing. Four themes influence this development: the legacy of
ancestral expectations; her relationships to father, mother and daughter; the
experiences of two marriages and a divorce; and her friendships with women.
Gilman and her "Prancing Young Utopia" presents three stages in the development
of Gilman's utopian writing. First she imagined neighbourhoods - writing alternately,
fiction and non-fiction.Second, she tested in fiction the expression of utopian
principles explainedin her non-fiction. Finally she created the whole society in her
1915 satire "Herland". All the foregoing writing represents Gilman's effort to imagine
in fiction solutions that she recommended in her 1898 feminist treatise, "Women and
Economics". "Writing to Empower Living" connects Gilman's biography to her
utopian writing as both personal expression and public activism. The writing can be
understood as "equipment for living". Ten hard-to-locate utopian novels conclude
the volume." £ 6-50 |
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Hedingham Harvest : Victorian Family Life in Rural England 248pp with 3 pages of "family trees". A family chronicle of Victorian rural England.
The beauty of the Lincolnshire countryside and the realities of farming life are
evoked in rich and captivating detail, but above all this is an account of characters ;
their ambitions, their sensuality, and their preoccupations. Published in the Isis
Reminiscence series. Fine cond - laminated pictorial covers, as issued. |
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Albertina : The History of the Collection and its Masterpieces pub Prestel - London - 1999 The eventful history of Vienna's Graphische Sammlung Albertina is
reviewed together with some of the exhibits of this 12 x 8 1/2 inches hardback originally pub. @ £39-95 Limited supply only £20-00 as new |
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Titles in the subject fields:- Priced at £3-00 or £6-00 each as new Paperback
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William Cobbett : Englishman, a biography xi + 275pp with b/w illus. pub by Aurum Press - London - 1997 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches hardback originally pub @ £18-95 Limited supply only £6-50 as new |
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xix + 300pp. "This book is the first-ever collection of travel writing by black authors
which is truly international in scope and which includes material from the late
eighteenth century to the present day. From narratives of the 'middle passage' to the
observations of the modern tourist, this anthology includes the testimony of slaves,
economic migrants, political activists, musicians, sailors, missionaries, students,
foreign correspondents and wartime personnel. Some fifty extracts - drawn from
autobiographies, diaries, letters, newspapers reports, fiction, essays, drama and
poetry, as well as travel literature more conventionally defined - indicate the
bewildering variety of journeys which have taken place between Africa, Europe and
America in all directions and which have made the African diaspora what it is
today." Fine cond trade paperback. 9 1/4 x 6 inches £ 7-50 strictly limited supply |
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Shakespeare, Sex and the Print Revolution ix + 274pp. "This book investigates how the sexual element in Shakespeare's works
is complicated and compromised by the impact of print. Whether the issue is one of
censorship and evasion or sexual redefinition, the fact that Shakespeare wrote in the
first century of popular print is crucial. Out of the newly-accessible classical canon
he creates a reconstituted idea of the sexual temmptress; and out of
Counter-Reformation propaganda he fashions his own complex thinking about the
prostiture. Shakespeare's theatrical scripts, meeting ground for the spoken and
written word, contribute powerfully to those socio-sexual debates which had been
re-energised by print." Fine cond : fine cond d/w. 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches |
