Creators Books

The Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator by Forrest Harris is a very detailed, very complete, source for making a Western Town for a Wild West setting. While made by Knuckleduster Publications for Deadlands it can be used for others systems, including the Deadlands d20 system and the Fudge system. Or, if a fan of the Old West, you could just read it from front to back. There are tons of fun facts, short TRUE stories and information you can enjoy. The book deals with town types, gives data on the cattle business, the many stores, hotels and saloons that a town has, the ins and outs of running a railroad or stagecoach line, some points about the facts and myths of law enforcement and even a small bibliography of books.

Most will be familiar with the author P.L. Travers as the creator of the Mary Poppins series: this biographical sketch expands upon the Travers details, covering her enthusiasm for poetry, her world travels, her acting abilities and encounters with sages and famous personalities. Articles by a variety of contributors provide many different aspects of Pamela Travers' personality and achievements.

This books contains biographical essays about the people who have shaped our modern world, for good and bad. It is a fascinating story, since its chronological order allows the reader to explore the evolution of the modern world from every aspect: science, art, philosophy, politics, war. Many of the lives involved are intertwined, since the work of artists and scientists are affected by what happens in the economic and political arenas, and viceversa, and many of them were contemporaries and had influence on each other, besides exchanging letters or getting involved in debates. It starts with Newton, and from then on you are witness to the most important landmarks in history: major scientific discoveries and inventions, major works of art and political developments. I read this first when I was a child (in the spanish edition), and it proved to be MY introduction to Western culture. For example, I was impelled to read Proust, since the essay contained here awoke my curiosity to find out the importance and beauty of his prose. If you read this, you will have a very good panoramic view of our history, including, as I said, art, science, philosophy and politics. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially parents with high-schoolers. The style is serious but clear and straightforward; the essays are short (8-12 pages)and try to stimulate further reading, since they include a short list of bibliography to which the interested reader can move on.

I loved this book. It was informative, easy to read, and written in a clever way, revealing his life as though it were set on a stage. Sue Lloyd sheds some well deserved light on a great poet that has gone too long without the recognition owed to him.

This book is based on conversations - interviews that Magee conducted for a BBC series . In it he tries to introduce philosophical problems and ideas to a wider audience. The written text of the book was based on the transcripts of the talks. But these were worked on considerably both by Magee and those he interviewed. The effort was to make as readable a text as possible and to eliminate the repetitions, the paraphanelia of speech. He opens the dialogues with a talk with Sir Isaiah Berlin on the question of why anyone should take an interest in Philosophy. Berlin talks about the way we all live with assumptions which when questioned philosophically undermine our security. And he indicates that as one possible reason why so many avoid philosophy. On the other hand he says when there is no questioning when all is taken as it is , the mind and imagination dry up. In these lectures Magee does not allow the mind and imagination to dry up. He engages in dialogue with many of the most prominent philosophers of our time beginning with Berlin, and then Charles Taylor, Herbert Marcuse, William Barrett, Anthony Quinton, A.J. Ayer, Bernard Williams, R.M. Hare, W.V. Quine, John Searle, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Putnam, Ronald Dworkin, Iris Murdoch, Ernest Gellner. He tries to be inclusive in these talks and have representatives of all the major schools of philosophy, and representatives of all the major areas. To my mind there is an over- representation of the analystic and positivistic type of thinker, but this is perhaps indicative of the character of philosophy today.
This is a very good introduction to basic problems of philosophy.
Parenthetically, the fact that this review is the first of the book posted on 'Amazon' would seem to me a small piece of evidence in support of Berlin's thesis that the mass of mankind would rather not have their own assumptions question and their own beliefs tested.

"Dorothy Sayers, distinguished theologian, playwright, and novelist, believes that when the Christian creeds are examined in the light of direcct experience their affirmations illuminate the specific nature and process of the creative mind.

"In THE MIND OF THE MAKER Miss Sayers examines the creative mind at work and unfolds the subtle parallelism between the divine and the artistic imagination. Not resting content however with establishing truth by analogy, Miss Sayers then proceeds to illustrate the fundamental truth of the Christian doctrine of God and man as displayed in the remarkable comparison of divine and human creativity."

Review blurb:
"Her approach to the problem of Creation is novel, arresting and fundamental...a brilliant success." -- Times Literary Supplement

Miss Coogan wrote this in 1935, it has a foreward by Robert L. Owen. If you do not know who Owen was, look him up. He understood money systems and knew what a debt money system would do, because it has done it to us. Coogan and Owen understood the difference between an honest money system and the unlawful debt money system this country and the world is saddled with.The book is not perfect, but it is very good. Highly recommend.

This books imparts fascinating glimpses of natural phenomena that give powerful evidence of a creator God. I especially enjoyed chapters "Footprints in the Stars," "Exploits of Living Water," and "Thriving in Fire and Ice."

A beautiful book evoking imagery of a time past that had been very instrumental in inspiring and providing access to America's love and appeciation of nature. In this book we are shown how these roads led us to our collective love of natural beauty in America - literally and metaphorically - in an historically accurate and academic work by the author whose love of these roads in Acadia and of nature's wonders in general are delightfully evident. Exquisite photographs!

This spectacularly illustrated witty book full of historical information and performance history of twenty operas is informative, beautiful and clever all at the same time.


Opera and Its Characters is filled with exceptional and matchless tales as told by two singers and their friends giving you their take on twenty operas through the eyes of the characters, shown in full-page color illustrations by Francis Keeping.

While the book is chockfull of information - history of the individual opera, its cast, composer and librettist, it is for the non-opera expert and enthusiasts alike.

The stories in Opera and Its Characters include: The Queen of the Night, aka the world's worst mother-in-law; Don José, the quintessential mama's boy and murderer; opera's most dysfunctional family, King Nabucco of Babylon and his unhinged daughters, Lakmé and her rather unusual Gerald, who falls in love with her even after she says, You know, I could have had you killed. These and many familiar and uncommon characters' stories are contained in this book and are told in a scholarly yet uniquely whimsical fashion.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a gift for adults and children alike. You will never tire of the stories and the beautiful illustrations are a constant source of delight, amazement and inspiration!