Artists Books

I am an avid Laurel Burch collector and consider myself somewhat of an expert on her items, periods of design and what to look for. This book is a must have for any Laurel collector! It has a fabulous bio and great pics, which can be very helpful to look at when trying to figure out if a piece is authentic (there are PLENTY of knock-offs!) And most of all, it NEVER gets boring, I see something new every time I pick it up! I use the jewelry page to search for new pieces that I am lacking and enjoy seeing how the original wooden sculptures came to be. Laurel Burch was an amazing artist, philanthropist and human being and should be recognized for her amazing life!

A friend showed me the book and I bought it as a resource for my art students. Wonderful use of colors and imagination!

I have collected a variety of Laurel Burch products, this book, Fantastic Felines, I must say, is one of my favorites. It not only displays a variety of products Laurel Burch has designed, but also goes into her private life, for us to get an idea of what inspires her as an artist. Throughout her book, the poems and the beauty in her artwork, are heartfelt. Everytime I pick up the book I see something new. I recommend this book highly as an intergral part of any Laurel Burch collection or for any cat lover. Great as a gift, too, for that's how I received my copy, and I'll cherish it always. Thanks, Laurel. Fantastic Job!

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! This book is just knockout! Full-color dynamite with the exciting art of Laurel Burch. I love the simple lines and fabulous color combinations that set your imagination free with wonderful fantasy. the pictures are so gorgeous that it takes looking at them over and over again to catch all the fine details before you realize that what looks so simple is indeed complex and well-thought out art design. Very intriguing! A must have for cat lovers.

If you love Laurel Burch then you will love this book. It's gorgeous, sumptious, lavish -- all the words that people use to describe Burch's artwork. I thought the most interesting parts were 1) the biography; 2) the pictures detailing how various objects are planned, sketched, painted and then produced; and 3) actress Tippi Hendren's work in rescuing big cats (lions, tigers, etc). It would have been a better book, however, had there been more text regarding production as well as Burch's background and approach to her work. The last couple of chapters contain information about the various product lines (cups, plates, scarves, umbrellas, etc) plus four pages showing all of her cat jewelery -- but no information on how to obtain them or when and if her jewelery will be available again. Many of the pictures of Burch's artwork are suitable for framing, btw, so you may want to order two copies. Nb: with a couple of exceptions, all of the photographs are of Burch's cat pieces (hence the title of the book, "Fantastic Felines"). Don't buy this expecting an overview of all her work. But if you like the cats, then this book is definitely for you.

A novel of the end of the Soviet Union----shortly after the collapse of Communism and the Berlin Wall. As Russia crumbles within and all around them, the Muslims, and the peoples of surrounding providence's and middle Asia revolt. The main character is a hedonist painter, with a small group of characters stuck in the unintentional web. We see the effects of culture and prejudice and how it determines peoples thinking.

Peters is a former army officer who has toured these areas and understands the culture. He brings out the miserableness of Communism----the people----the unhappiness----the lostness----the falseness. Peters has an ability for variability in his writing, and an uncanny eye for detail. He is unique in the way he gets inside an individuals' head. I think he is one of our great versatile writers of our time. The only negative I found in this novel was some unnecessary graphic details.

Wish you well
Scott

Peters does it again. A magnificent combination of strong characters and geopolitical reality and a fine primer on the political importance of Uzbekistan that was written nearly a decade before 9/11.

This book may be in the wrong category. I would not really place it in the action group becuase it is a display of a deep character driven novel. It is really a very interesting look at this difficult time for Russian's. It was also much more enjoyable then I thought it would be. The descriptions of the locations and main home were very good. I also liked the characters that were created. They had depth and feeling, not just scratch the surface to fill pages. The book is not the feel good hit of the year, it does had a rich plot that you need to keep up with, but the author rewards your efforts with a masterly written book. I think when it comes down to it that is the strength here, the writing is just very good, a lot of feeling comes out.

Since Peters came out with Red Army, I have read all of his works. I have enjoyed them all, but this is his best to date.

The prologue. Ralph Peters gives you the perspective, the eyesight, of a Soviet Third Shock Army officer stationed in East Germany, 1989. Inside the Magdeberg headquarters, you drink vodka with the Russion generals. You smell the stink of their fear-sweat. You hear their outrage and lack of understanding as the East Germans protest down the streets against them. Against you.

Ralph Peters gets you so close to them, you not only feel the scratchy wool of their uniforms, but when word comes that the locals are tearing down the Berlin Wall... it hits you with the same end-of-the-world kidney punch as it must have hit real-life Soviet officers.

And that's just the first few pages. Next up, we have exotic locals, both hot and cold, intrigue, plots, Islamic terror, and some of the hottest (...romance) to ever land on the pages of a hardcover novel.

Plus the usual heaping dose Ralph Peters of tragedy.

Beg, borrow, buy, or steal this book.

This calendar kept me up to date on things I had to do. Not the best in graphics, but it's a calendar.

This little book is perfect if you want to send a quick 'Helloh, 'Thinking of You' or any other special occasion. It's quick and easy and Cicely Mary Barker captures these lovely,graceful and whimiscal fairies in great settings.

I looked everywhere for a list of what fairies were included in this postcard book - wanting to know if it would be useful for my Nature table - and finally just had to purchase it "sight-unseen". For those of you who may want to know the same thing, or are looking especially for a favorite illustration, here they are:
The Strawberry Fairy
The Chicory Fairy
The Heliotrope Fairy
The Canterbury Bell Fairy
The Candytuft Fairy
The Crocus Fairies
The Tulip Fairy
The Almond Blossom Fairy
The Pear Blossom Fairy
The Nasturtium Fairy
The Ragged Robin Fairy
The Wallflower Fairy
The Zinnia Fairy
The Double Daisy Fairy
The Cornflower Fairy
The Cowslip Fairy
The Fuchsia Fairy
The Columbine Fairy
The Lilac Fairy
The Lily-of-the-Valley Fairy
The Phlox Fairy
The Guelder Rose Fairy
The Pansy Fairy
The Winter Jasmine Fairy
The Michaelmas Daisy Fairy
The Red Campion Fairy
The Rose-Bay Willow-Herb Fairy
The Beechnut Fairy
The Elderberry Fairy
The Gorse Fairies

I was NOT disappointed with this purchase. The postcards are adorable just as the work of Cicely Mark Barker. I can't wait to give it to my sister as a gift with The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies.

My four year old loves to thumb through these beautiful pictures, but when we had to send thank you notes for her birthday party gifts, we carefully tore a few out to send to her friends. Everyone liked them so much that I see them hanging on walls in refrigerators in her friends' houses. Charming! Highly recommended!

I first became aware of Franklin Booth through one of many artists whose work he has influenced... Bernie Wrightson.
After being completely swept away by Wrightson's epic, masterful illustrations of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, I sought out Franklin Booth's work. I was somewhat surprised and disappointed at the lack of published volumes of his work! Particularly for such an apparently influential artist.
A search here on Amazon, finally provided the result I was looking for... Franklin Booth: Painter With A Pen. This volume fills in a gap on an extremely talented artist! Examples of his published works, both illustrative and decorative, are plentiful here. Gustav Dore's woodcuts are the most obvious influences in Booth's work, but he takes this form to a fresh, more spontaneous level, with immediacy and energy of line that the flow of pen and ink allows over printmaking. The sureness and complete control of the medium is nothing short of astonishing, and the fact that Booth was a self taught artist truly confirms his artistic genius.
It's also a joy to finally see Roy Krenkel's wonderful, heartfelt introduction in print here! This book will provide hours of enjoyment to any fan or student of art. I highly recommend it!

For me this was a long-awaited title b'coz as an artist I admire Franklin Booth's Pen and Ink techniques which inspires me a lot!! This book contains many different pictures which reveal his mastery over every aspect of art such as composition, design, drawing, and figurative and landscape. The title of the book says it all "He is truly a Painter with a Pen". Hats off to one of the greatest artists of the century!!!

I enjoyed this book. I had to wait until it was reprinted to get a good look at it.
Anyone interested infine illustration and especially pen and ink work will surely be amazed by these works.
The only drawback is that it only covers his black and white work and is therefore incomplete.

I'm new to the pen and ink paintings of Franklin Booth. This is a delightful book that can be enjoyed by all ages. The themes range from the fanciful to the sublime. I highly recommend this beautiful book.

Franklin Booth's illustrations are amazing! His compositions are some of the best I've seen. There is a feeling of peace as I flip through the pages of this book. Franklin Booth used a unique approach of using pen lines to depict shades and depth by varying the distance of the lines from one another. At first look I thought it reminded me of a wood engraving, but it is so much more. The best thing about this book is that it is family safe and can be shown to and enjoyed by people of all ages.

I was touched by the passion of the introduction writer Roy Krenkel. Also, the brief biography and foreword written by one of Franklin Booth's students from the late thirties made it obvious how loved Booth was during his lifetime. The combination of illustrations and design allowed the artwork to breath on each page. The selections by the publisher couldn't have been better.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of fine pen and ink, and to those who enjoy all things beautiful.

The reproductions in this book are dark compared to the originals I've seen, but the text is informative and does a good job of exploring Church as an artist and his influence on the artists who followed him.

A strikingly pretty book. The text is informative, but not at all challenging to read. Unlike many art books, this really is a straightforward informative biography with lots of well-done, accurate reproductions. It's pricey, but you get what you pay for with the prints. One might want a bit more criical an appraisal of the artist and his choice of subject matter, but maybe you just want the art.

FREDERICK EDWIN CHURCH - COMPARISIONS OF THE TWO BOOKS

Book #1: By Franklin Kelly - National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Press (1989)
Book #2: By John K. Howat - Yale University Press (2005)

(All numbers given, are for the numbered reproductions in Book #2.)

Paintings in Book #2 (in Color), that are NOT in Book #1 -
#1, 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 24, 25, 27, 29, 40, 41, 42, 48, 53, 60, 66, 67, 68, 70, 73, 74, 75, 81, 82, 86, 94, 95, 96, 97, 114, 115, 120, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136, 140, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 169, 182, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195

Paintings in Color in Book #2, that are ONLY in Black & White in Book #1 -
#16, 21, 117, 124, 126, 134, 177, 181, 185, 189

(I didn't include any of the details, drawings, sketches, or photographs.)

I made comparisons of every reproduction, where both books had the same paintings. Here is a simplified overview, of which book had the best reproduction:

REPRODUCTIONS THAT WERE MUCH BETTER IN BOOK #1 -
#22, 26, 46, 53, 65, 72, 92, 118, 137, 175

REPRODUCTIONS THAT WERE MUCH BETTER IN BOOK #2 -
#17, 28, 31, 33, 34, 38, 41, 47, 49, 50, 51, 69, 71, 83, 113, 116, 125, 128, 168, 178, 180

The others were either EQUAL, or there was just a slight preference between the two.

Overall, the printing and the paper stock, is better in Book #2.

The main fault of the reproductions in Book #2 (that are better in Book #1), is they are too dark. And the main fault of the reproductions in Book #1, is that many of the reproductions are too yellow (or red, etc.).

The TITLES were different (most likely wrong in Book #1) for these paintings -
#49 (!), 53, 134, 179 (!), 185

#160 is CROPPED in Book #2! (The entire bottom, and the right-hand side).

There were many differences in the SIZE of the reproductions - too many to mention.
(Overall, Book #1 had larger reproductions, but of course had fewer paintings.)

Book #1: "FREDERICK EDWIN CHURCH" - 205 illustrations, 75 in color - 211 pages
Book #2: "FREDERICK CHURCH" - 198 illustrations, 154 in color - 213 pages

Geoffrey Chandler - February 15, 2007 - San Francisco, California

P.S. The guy who wrote the earlier review was dead wrong. This is NOT "pricey", it's a bargain!

This book is a must have if you love Fredric Church and want to find out more about his life and career. The paintings are breath taking. For admirers of the Hudson River School and American landscapes this is a must.

Terrific book. One of the best biographies of an artist that I have read and stunning reproductions of his work. Church seemed to be an anomaly of his time because his talent and painting skills were so "over the top" that he dwarfed other painters of his time. Even the highly esteemed English artists of the 1800's were amazed by his paintings and British art critic John Ruskin praised his work. Church's output and work ethic was amazing and Howat does a great job describing his life and painting techniques. I certainly recommend this book.

Robert Reynolds

An excellent biography of the funniest man who ever stole a gag from another comedian. Yes it's Benny Hill, a man who took a name because is sounded Jewish and wrote some of the funniest songs ever using the most recycled of jokes.

His humour was what the people wanted in the seventies, coarse slightly obscene and saucy. He deserved the title of the the worlds most popular comedian. It was a shame that Benny ended up as a target for feminists and other politically correct groups and was eventually sacked for his humour. The people that hounded him must have been very humourless, cold hearted people indeed.

The book is great though there are few mistakes here and there with respect to show titles and content. I recommend anyone who is interested in British actors and theatre read this book.

Tim Brimelow
Melbourne Australia

This is a fascinating, first-rate biography of one of the twentieth century's most beloved comedy figures; a man who is now largely overlooked in his home country despite having been its most successful comic export outside of Charlie Chaplin. Benny Hill was a complex man who led a simple (if somewhat peculiar) life, and this book provides tremendous insight into not only his personal foibles and professional endeavors, but also the motivations and reasons for his intriguing private behavior and public rise and fall. Drawing on extensive research and fresh interviews with many of the key figures in Benny's life, Mark Lewisohn's writing combines warmth, empathy and humor with analysis, objectivity and attention to detail -- the comic inventiveness and outright stealing of other artists' ideas; the abnormally excessive frugality; the sexual indulgences and hopelessly failed relationships... whether you want to know about the man's career, his love life or the fact that he just loved a quick game of Kalooki, it's all here. Buy this book!

This is one of the finest biographies I have read in years -- it penetrates deeply into the formative experiences and motivations of this strange and reclusive figure, and brings him vividly to life. Many interviewees discouraged the author from this task, but he persevered, and we have much to thank him for. All Benny Hill fans will now watch and enjoy his familiar sketches -- shamelessly recycled over the years -- with an added appreciation for their origins and rationale. Lewisohn helps us to delve into the psyche of this mysterious man, at once the embodiment of little Englishness, yet also a sensitive soul and a student of foreign cultures and languages.

The book is not unblemished. Benny's 50s farce, "Who Done It", is not nearly as abysmal as the author suggests (it's adequate slapstick with a few laughs -- how many 50s British movies has Lewisohn seen, there are many worse!). Benny's frugality is surely comprehensible in a man who had withstood wartime privations; and that character trait, combined with the much-hyped locker-room chit-chat with Bob Monkhouse, was regrettable but entirely standard male behavior for the 1950s. Despite all the conventional wisdom to the contrary, Benny did evolve. And--again with respect to Lewisohn--Benny scaled some of his finest heights of inspiration during his latest years with Thames. I am thinking of the Chubby Dodds documentary, and Murder on the Orient Express, and the "Family" skit, which bring smiles and laughter without fail, though I know them back to front. Of course, he was a comedian who operated rather too comfortably within his decent but clearly defined artistic parameters. Yet what was comforting for Benny was also reassuring for us... Lewisohn is right that Benny Hill's work will return to favor some day. It deserves to.

This book is a tremendously thorough examination of Benny's life, and there are some surprises here for those who are only aware of him through his television shows. Lewisohn pulls no punches and leaves very little unturned, both good and bad. It is unfortunate that Benny is now almost taboo in his own country. Having read this book, I will appreciate his comedy in a different light.

Good but slightly flawed

I bought this book not only because BCCA started to run the half-hour series again, but because I remembered reading a story in the paper a number of years ago how Benny Hill died alone in a sparsely furnished apartment, unloved.

What I got was a tremendous insight into English vaudeville and its morphing into radio and then television. I also got a tremendous amount of information about Hill's life, as other reviews note. I would, however, like to focus this review on the author's highly critical look at Benny Hill's work after he brought together the Hill's angels. The author unabashedly takes the feminist line that these programs were sexist, and there's no doubt that while the programs themselves were probably enough to get the feminists atwitter, now that BBCA is showing the uncut hour long shows, Hill's on air ridicule of the feminists was what really did it. I hadn't seen the hour long shows when I read the biography, so I more or less took the author at his word. Now that I've seen them, I have two comments. In no way are the Hill's Angels in any way objectionable. The author's comment, what did they have to do with comedy, is misdirected because they had everything to do with framing the skits that were carried within the performances. I think some of Hill's best work was done in these years.

My second comment is more of a revelation. I've always wondered exactly what it was that set Hill apart, the quality that no one else could or ever will duplicate. I realized watching these later shows that Hill had done something no one else had ever been able to do. He brought vaudeville, in its true form, to television. From childhood, he was steeped in, although unsuitable for, vaudeville. Television gave his strength, an acute eye for vaudeville, and his weakness, an inability to project beyond the tenth row of seats, the perfect format. It happened once, and that's the only time it will ever happen.

Finally, as to his death alone in a sparsely furnished room. The picture of Hill dead looks pretty bleak. However, the author makes one thing clear. Benny Hill did in life exactly as he pleased, lived his life exactly the way he wanted to live it, and knowing he was going to die soon, died exactly the way he wanted to die, eating candy bars, drinking, and watching his beloved TV. He had no regrets about anything in life and he was surrounded by people who loved him dearly. Even his failed romances weren't romances, but attempts to reach for unattainable women so he never had to make a commitment that would limit his freedom to do as he pleased. The one time he was expected to make a commitment, he ran fast. Hill did what he wanted in life, and to do that, he had to live and travel alone, and that's exactly what he did. Definitely buy this book, but don't let the author's prejudices dissuade you from enjoying all of Hill's work. As to the author's hope the British return to an appreciation of Hill, it'll never happen, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying him.

This book has been published under various subtitles since it first appeared in 1983: "Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property", "How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World" and "Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World". None of these quite captures what it really is, and that's probably because the book doesn't know what it really is, either. Lewis Hyde takes obvious delight in his work's ability to defy categorization or the pithy summary. Unique books have that quality. So do many that are poorly written. It took me a while to figure out which kind this is.

Hyde's central theorem - that true art does, and must of its nature, stand outside the market economy, and this therefore presents a serious problem for the artist forced to live in a world increasingly subsumed by the market economy - could have achieved its full elaboration in the space of a single chapter. In the first half of the book we get that, but we also get quite a lot of wide-ranging argument about economics and the traditional tribal life of gift exchange. Not all of this is relevant, but it's all admittedly fascinating. Less fascinating are Hyde's attempts to locate contemporary examples. For example, he argues rather unconvincingly that the scientific community is "a gift community to the extent that its ideas move as gifts". Fair enough, but the extent to which they do in fact move as gifts is negligible. Scientists are among the most egotistical, petty and jealously self-serving academics ever born. Science isn't about sharing ideas, or not only that. It's about promoting "my ideas" and having "my name" forever associated with them. It's about personal prestige and glory. Ask any scientist how he or she would feel about all work being published in journals anonymously, and used thereafter without attribution.

The second half of the book is given over to two long essays on poets, and here Hyde - a poet himself - is clearly on stronger ground. One is a very engaging treatment of Walt Whitman which traces elements of "the gift" idea through his poetry and sad personal life, though for some inexplicable reason Hyde doesn't quite want to state clearly what he constantly implies: that Whitman's charitable works had a good deal more sublimated homosexuality in them than they did Christian love for his fellow man. The other is an interesting analysis of Ezra Pound which traces the arc of his genius and generosity, and yet doesn't hold back from depicting him as a frustrated bigot and fascist lunatic who only recanted his vile "suburban prejudice" (anti-Semitism) at the very end.

The conclusion and afterword link elements of the gift argument to the support for the arts in postwar America and its relationship to the Cold War.

Margaret Atwood overstated the case when she apparently called this book "a masterpiece". It's very good, but it isn't that. It's overlong, weirdly structured, and in places poorly argued. Hyde often makes huge leaps in order to connect the "evidence" with his argument, or asks us to assume an assertion is true and then builds a case on the assertion without ever coming back to prove it. Disappointingly, there is very little synthesis here, nothing that binds all of these ideas into a consistent argument - and very little in the way of recommendations about how art might flourish in a market economy. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. I came away from this book uplifted and refreshed, with a whole new way of looking at Whitman and Pound, and a new way of looking at art's place in the world. There really is no place for art in the market economy, and that's probably why art will outlive it. There is something primal and fundamentally human in art and "the gift" economy on which it relies. Both are necessary functions of human life.

The main notion of THE GIFT is that works of art must be permitted to flow through their own creative economy, affected by but not restricted by the world's market economy. The book itself has functioned this way, recommended by one writer or artist to another since it first appeared in the early 1980s. Twenty-five years later, it's as pertinent as ever. Hyde's wide range of references, from anthropological sources to lit-crit and biography of Whitman and Pound, is itself an amazing show -- not only of erudition, but of a kindled knowledge. THE GIFT is a variety show for artists, suggesting by way of all sorts of material how the writer and creator can survive in a mercantile world. There's an interesting perspective of the book at [...], and recently the major literary sections of UK publications, like The Guardian, have covered this new issue of THE GIFT. That's because the book has just now been released in the UK for the first time.

This book is the antidote to university education or years in the workforce. It is the same truth that broke my heart rearranged to buck it up again. Mr. Hyde, I only hope someday I can give it back again.

well so far so good, I have not finished this book yet. it is a bit long for me, not being much of a book finisher. But it is a nice slow read if you keep with it. it makes me think alot and it takes me a while to apply some of his persectives to my life. Ah but when I do! it is a very rewarding experience and truly gets me far more excited about the digging through the rest of this book. It is a bit to filled with old world tales or obscure facts about the unusual scitzophrenic rate in scottland for my tastes. Yet these stories do work and I am reminded of my philosophy 101 teacher who said, "you can tell by how well someone can illustrate something, how well they understand what they are tallking about", so over illustration is not a bad thing to me, because I do sense and feel how deeply this author believes in what he is talking about. You get the feeling he spent his whole life thinking about it. The tone reminds me of listening to my beloved father inlaw who grew up driving tractors at 11 yrs old Nebraska. The authors heart like my Father inlaws heart is the real gem of this book. I did not major in philosophy, but this feels like my kind of philosophy. the book does stick to its promise to encourage bedroom musicians and artists struggling with their place in a capitalistic world.

If you need some wholesome optimism, I can say it is working for me.

"Freely you have recieved, Freely give" maybe easier than you think.

I may do an actual review later after some more reading, but some people may want to know, as I did, what relationship this book has to some other slightly differently named books by Lewis Hyde that were published under starting name "The Gift".

On the copyright page it states: Originally published in hardcover as "The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property" in a slightly different form in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and published in paperback in a slightly different form in the United states by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York in 1983.

Update #1: This edition has a three page preface from 2007. It also has a 16 page chapter from 2007 entitled "On Being Good Ancestors: Afterword to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition".

Artists should read this book & make note of all the marketing methods Edith Gregor Halpert employed to make it in the art world ... (actually this should be required reading for all gallery owners & curators too...) Come to think of it , anyone involved somehow in art should read this book ... (also , it is interesting how possibly the lead in oil paints caused ear troubles & related brain tumor in those working close to paint- makes one think that is what Van Gogh also suffered from - lead poisoning ...makes one re-evaluate toxicity & proximity as well as ear problems in artists , starting with tinnitus , like a ringing in one's ears ... is madness among artists just lead poisoning ?) ... fascinating stuff...great read ...

Fascinating bio and first rate discussion of the strange intersection of high-art and commerece. Shows how much artists owe to the people who support and believe in them.

The title here is just a little bit misleading. Yes Edith was the girl with the gallery, but there were a lot of girls that had galleries. What Edith built was THE Gallery, at least so far as modern American art was concerned. Furthermore she did it from the outside, she was born Russian, coming to America when she was six, and at the young age of 26 founding the Downtown Gallery in Greenwich Village.

There was at the time no American art movement. The few painters of the time had great difficulty selling their work. Edith changed that. Her gallery specialized in the work of these New York locals, combined agressive selling with a devotion to this style that remained for forty four years.

It was largely because of her that there is an American art scene. This book is a fine tribute to her life that has largely been forgotten.

Like another reviewer, I find it hard to put this book down.
It is frankly and beautifully written in a way that puts the reader in the back of the Rolls Royce with Abby Rockefeller and behind the desk with Edith in her Greenwich village gallery.

I am only half way through the book and am savoring it thoroughly for the ride that it is taking me on: I feel like I walked the construction site of Rockefeller Center,toured Radio City Music before the first Rockette,
and participated in persuading Mayor LaGuardia to put a subway stop at Rock Center....

Fascinating and excellent read.

I had a lot of trouble putting aside the book so that I could take care of my normal daily chores and business. It was interesting to me from a variety of points. One of them was the excellent introduction information about how the author first learned of Edith Gegor Halpet and then how surprised she was to discover a treasure trove of available research material including an oral history that included more than 800 transcrbed pages. While I'm not in the gallery business, I do enjoy art and I found the book a very interesting story of how tough a business the marketing of art really is. Halpert's struggles opening and running a gallery have valuable lessons for any small business owner. Some of her sales techniques could be applied to almost any business with great success. The book is a great read and provides glimpses into the world of art, artists, patrons, museums, and the important contributions women have made to the art fields over the years. It's another example of how women have come into their own.

This is a charming and humorous book. It recalls humor from another perhaps less complicated era. Worthwhile.

This is by far my favorite collection of Ward's pinup art. From the gorgeous cover art and dust jacket to the high quality, glossy pages, this tops the other books available. Those of us lucky enough to have bought this rather limited release possess one of the best collections of pinup art from an undisputed master available.

I bought this book back in 2003 when it was freshly in print and it was, h'mmmm, $28.95 list (just checked the dust jacket). The $159 I referred to is what Amazon Marketplace dealers are asking for it as of late April 2007 - and that's the _least_ expensive price. Take it from me, though; this book is well worth the cost (and if you keep it in good condition, you'll find it appreciating further!) The first part of the book is given over to a comprehensive overview of Ward's life and career, with many illustrations (mostly in color). The heart of this volume, though, is the 130-some full-page reproductions, in B&W and sepia, of Ward's best cartoons featuring his sexy and elegant beauties from what I consider to be his finest body of work in the 1950's and 1960's. The theme-oriented chapters have headings such as "Phone Girls Part 1", "The Mating Game", "Working Girls", "Husbands and Wives", and all provide a splendid overview of Ward's unique "conte" drawing style and his fascination with the accouterments of feminine dress such as high heels, seamed stockings, figure-hugging dresses and gowns, picture hats and opera-length gloves. Compare and contrast with Taschen's new _The Wonderful World of Bill Ward_, which I will also be reviewing in the near future. Highly recommended, particularly in the hardback version (if you can afford it!!)

I don't think Bill Ward sits easily with what are generally considered pin-up artists like Elvgren, Petty, Vargas and the few dozen others who created the genre over the last seventy years but his huge output from 1950 to 1975 (which is the basis of this handsome book) means his work has to be considered.

Examples of Ward's comic art, shown in several color covers (Love Diary, Love Confessions, Love Scandals, Heart Throbs, Flaming Love and Torchy) clearly show how good a draughtsman he was but the clean-up of the market in the early fifties meant he had to find another publications to work for. Abe Goodman's Humorama titles solved the problem. These were cheaply-printed digest size magazines full of bad jokes, cheesecake photos and girlie cartoons. The author Alex Chun says Ward produced thirty cartoons a month for Humorama titles and over twenty-fives years probably drew an amazing 9,000 pin-ups.

Ward's Humorama art was probably the only reason anyone bought these tacky publications. Because he had to produce so much work quickly he developed his own unique style of using Conte crayon to draw pin-ups. This had the advantage of showing tonal quality almost like an airbrush and when the originals (up to eighteen by twenty-four inches) were reduced to the digest size pages they looked impressively slick.

There are 117 whole page Ward pin-ups, all from his Humorama period, in this book. The majority are printed in four-color sepia with white highlights (the front of the book has an essay and examples of his early comic and color pin-up work) and the sexually suggestive, exaggerated females with their black stockings, filmy negligees, skin-tight dresses, coiffure hair and impossibly high stilettos leap of the page. If you are interested in this little corner of American male pop culture I doubt there will be a better book of Bill Ward's voluptuous art.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This is a great book for fans of Bill Ward's pin-up art and features numerous full-page illustrations of his distinctive beauties. Most of the pin-ups are black and white Conte crayon drawings done on a beige colored paper. There are a few color pin-ups shown as well. The beginning of the book contains a concise biography of Ward along with samples of his comic-book art. There are several nice romance covers shown here. The book is printed on quality paper and the pin-ups shown at a nice size. This is an A+ effort. The only thing you could have asked for is more art, but at around 100 pin-ups this is a great tribute to Bill Ward.

As an artist with an Master's degree in painting, I was amazed by the stunning reproductions in this "children's" book, and kept looking at it, and looking at it. The reproductions are so vivid, the text so appropriate, and the book so well designed that I could almost imagine I was walking through the chapel myself. It was the first time I'd seen the frescos in an order the artist intended, which made them even more powerful. Eventually the book went to a friend who admires frescos, but there was such a sense of intimacy in it that I've been searching for another copy for well over a year. The text and the images meld beautifully, and I can honestly say it's the first story of Christ's life I've seen where I felt the illustrations or text didn't "get in the way". Even if you're a fesco fan who's more interested in Giotto than in the story, tear up your check for that expensive art book and buy this first.

I bought this as a gift for my niece/goddaughter about 11 years ago and have wished I'd got one for myself ever since. It is simply gorgeous with a very moving text. You don't have to be a committed believer to enjoy this lovely book.

I remember reading this book in the store when it first came out, and it has stuck with me since. Madeline L' Engle gives a thoughtful, sensitive twist on a timeless story, and writes iin such a prose that you could easily imagine reading aloud to young children. I have searched for it for years, and am pleased to discover it in print again.

As an art educator, church librarian, and special lecture person who links art with religion at my church, I can highly recommend this gorgeous book to you. Madeleine L'Engle is one of my favorite writers and she presents the life of Christ in flowing prose. I even picked up a few facts I did not know. The book is illustrated using various panels from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy which adds sumptuousness to its narrative. As a child I was drawn to picture books like this because of their medieval, almost Oriental appearance, so if you wish to influence your children to appreciate a good story well told and illustrated, select this book. The text is on an 9-13 year old level. The "glorious impossible" is something that cannot be explained but only rejoiced in, and I think that sums up God's gift of Jesus to us in a very satisfying way. Enjoy.

Are you looking for a book to read to your children to share your faith, tell the story of Christ, and inspire your child and yourself to feel the joys of giving, forgiveness, commitment, and love? This is THE book for you. L'Engle's extraodinary and inspiring writing style was never so beautiful as in this faithful retelling of the Gospels. It uses both simple, everyday language and the more complex quotes of the Bible to render a tale that is both easy to read and mystical- a hard task in Children's Bible literature. Her comments on the feelings and activities of both Jesus and others are so spiritually aware that adults will end up thinking about it long after the book is finished. In particular, her thoughts on Judas and his motivation were thoughtful, compassionate, and shed the first positive light I have ever seen given to this character. She brings up points I had never considered--- After Jesus rose He said "Peace be with you" not "Where were you when I needed you" - with such simplicity that one can't help wonder why they didn't consider it before. Along side L'Engle's rich prose is artwork beautiful enough to be awed over by adults, but detailed enough you'll laugh as children comment, "Hey, Lazarus really looks dead!" "The Glorious Impossible" is beautiful, gentle, rich, and assuring- a perfect book to introduce not only Christ but what he taught as well.