Illinois Books

This is a beautiful book, lavishly produced on fine paper, with 46 colored plates and many black and white photos. This is the story of Ami Argand, inventor of the greatly improved oil lamp in 1780. Argand lived an interesting life, and knew some of the main characters in the industrial revolution, such as James Watt, Matthew Boulton, and the Montgolfier brothers. His story had been mostly forgotten, though, and Wolfe has done the world some good in bringing it back to life.

The lamp Argand patented was actually an important invention. It was no small thing to bring a much improved, cheaper source of light to the homes and shops of an industrializing West. The Argand lamp became the standard configuration until about 1850 when the kerosene lamp more or less replaced it. Many of them were real works of art, eagerly sought by collectors today. They were more or less on the edge of what could be mass produced at the time, and Argand experienced many trials and tribulations in bringing it to market. Even the renowned Boulton factories had trouble producing them.

This is a wonderful tale of the Industrial Revolution, and I much enjoyed it. Thank you Mr. Wolfe!

Tremendous book. Beautifully researched and filled with staggering illustrations. I bought it as a reference as I collect lamps. As a reference and piece of scholarship it ranks with the work of Florence Montgomery, John Bivens and Catherine Lynn. What was the most pleasant surprise is that it is beautifully and compellingly written. A truly fascinating story of a fascinating man who lived during a fascinating era. No serious collector of lighting or 18-19th century decorative object should be without this work. Any major decArts library would be remiss not to own it. At $59.95 it is probably underpriced.

John Wolfe portrays the poignant story of a brilliant, gentle, and naive 18th century inventor, Ami Argand. Wolfe's exhaustive research rewards the reader with an intimate view into the life and thinking of Argand and other 18th century luminaries. This book engages your sense of histroy, science, intrigue, and lighting. I really enjoyed it.

An invention of an oil lamp has revolutionized the world. Finally, a lamp has been created that produced a good light without the annoying smoke that has plagued the social life of people over thousands of years. The value of the inventions is immediately recognized and the demand for the new lamp is overwhelming. A commercial opportunity of enormous proportion has emerged. Can a single person protect his invention and satisfy the demand for the new light against the competitive spirit of free market? It is the year 1784, the rumblings of the French Revolution, of the Napoleon wars, and of restructuring of the social systems are not yet heard. It is the time of technical innovations. The steam engine has already advanced manufacturing industry and the dream to conquer the air has just become a reality, the balloon of the Montgolfier brothers graces the sky. John J. Wolfe's book provides an initiate picture of Ami Argand, the Genevese citizen who perfected distilleries for Brandy, invented the two-air draft burner for oil lamps, and assisted the Montgolfiers in flying balloons. Its is a also the story of greed, deceit and unhappiness, and a story of an unfortunate hero and of successful villains. For the first time, an authoritative account is given for the life of Argand; a brilliant scientist who is immortalized by his invention, the Argand lamp, but also a person who sought recognition and wished to persevere in business. The combination of a spell binding story and never published pictures of early lighting promotes this book as a must for students of history, technology and lighting.

Cafagna's reputation may not yet be commensurate with his talent and skill, but the ol' boy can lay down the line with the best of them. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from him.

Have not read this book but will soon do so... the reason I came to this page was to read what others had to say about it because I absolutely loved (was shaken up...like only a good poet can do!) his poem, Gloomy Sunday, which I read at http://www.ralphmag.org/AR/cafagna.html

Phew.. powerful stuff. Definitely r need to read more of Cafagna

Normally I am not much of a reader of poetry.

However, no matter how many times I read this book or any other of Mr. Cafagna's poetry, each reading is as fresh as the first time. It touches me on every level and every poem brings me into a reality just as concrete and vivid as the air around me... And yet it never reads the same way twice, because of its complexity and depth.

HIGHLY recommend this.

I fell in love with this book from the first time I read just a few lines of "All The Bells." Cafagna's rich, dazzling images and taught, quick lines sing and break apart into impossible beauty. The poems that stand out most to me are "All The Bells," a brutal and intensely human account of his wife's suicide, and the incredible, haunting "The Impossible Line," dedicated to Cafagna's deceased wife. I recommend The Broken World most highly.

If you have any desire to learn about how to photograph architecture or interior spaces, sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Sometimes they are the very best teaching aids you can use, far better than pages of technical writing, diagrams, measurements and angles. Look at the composition, the light and the color. Aside from just enjoying the beautiful photographs for what they are, you can learn a great deal from them, if that is your aim. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know how to make compelling photographs of structures, interiors and designed spaces. You may need other books to master the technicalities of the craft if you're just beginning, but start here.

(Another great place to learn is from the work of Julius Shulman...)

If you, like me, have for years been looking at Julius Shulman photos of west coast architecture or Ezra Stoller's images from the east coast you tend to think they were the only ones taking great building photos so it was a wonderful surprise to come across this book of stunning photos.

Since Hedrich Blessing's start in 1929 they seem to have consistently produced great work. There several shots from the Thirties and Forties here that look just as fresh as yesterday. A list of nineteen company photographers on page eleven raises the question: how do they manage to take work that has a creative quality suggesting that there is only one company photographer? Tony Hiss in his intro essay quotes staffer Bob Harr "We're in competition with the world, but never with each other".

The book has one hundred and sixty beautiful photos split between interiors and exteriors and being client commissioned they all work hard to present their architectural best so fortunately there are no out-of-focus, angled or other trendy photo techniques at work.

I think this is a remarkable book of building photos and at the price some Amazon Marketplace Sellers are quoting it is an exceptional bargain.

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

There are some bodies of work that simply stand out from others. Be it style, approach, purpose, or quality, there's something that clearly puts certain groups of work above the vast majority of others. This book is such a body of work.

The images presented are commercial photographs. They were taken over a span of 70 years by different photographers, all of them doing architectural photography as a professional venture for commercial purposes. All too often it seems that people automatically assume that if something is commercially produced, it simply cannot exist on the level of other things that have been produced for the purpose of art. And unfortunately, a lot of the photography and design we come in contact with on a daily basis just reinforces this notion. However, there are certain individuals who are capable of completing a commercial venture in such a beautiful, elegant, and truly artful manner that it becomes astoundingly clear that commercial work need not be anything short of fine art. In design, we have people like Viktor Schreckengost who have proven this. In photography, there are photographers like those at Hedrich-Blessing.

I do not mean to imply that these photographers are infallible or incapable of producing work that would simply fall into a pedestrian classification. However, given the photographs in this book, it is clear that they have been able to produce a large number of photographs that are both highly communicative and visually clear, concise, and overwhelmingly elegant. Few photographers have been able to approach architecture in such a way.

The book itself does a simply wonderful job presenting these photographs. The layout, editing, text, and photographs are nearly perfect. The introduction, written by Timothy Samuelson, is wonderfully done and does an excellent job of introducing the photographs that follow. The reproductions of the photographs are gorgeous. The order is very well thought-out and the periodic sections of text that identify the photographs contain individual paragraphs about some of the photographs that provide wonderful insight into the process, the photographers, etc.

I think just about anyone could get something out of this volume. Most of all, though, I think that it's something that would be most meaningful for photographers, designers, and architects. Or anyone with a strong sense for the visual, for that matter. I don't know how many times I've spent a coupel hours just slowly going over the photographs in this book. Every time I've done so, I've gotten something different out of the images. And almost always I feel refreshed and eager to get out there and work on making better images myself (I'm a photographer).

I cannot say enough good things about this book. But given that I'm sure you probably think I've already written too much, let me just say this much more - this is a significant volume, being beautiful throughout, more than worthy of the price, and sure remain a prized part of your collection for many, many years.

What a beautiful collection of photographs! The images in this book are some of the most georgeous photographs of buildings that I have ever seen, beginning with that stunning shot of the Chicago Federal building on the cover. This is the kind of coffee table book that is very smart and invites attention. The images move though 70 years of different styles of architecture, but with a consistent focus on what is most important -- a detail, a beautiful shape, or a play of textures and color to create a mood that shows the strength of the architectural designs. This consistency is amazing considering how many photographers Hedrich Blessing has used -- 19 in all. The book features images that you rarely see elsewhere, like the 1930's panoramic shot of the Palmolive building with the spikes of lighting in the sky (and shows just how far back Hedrich Blessing goes)to the more abstracted photographs, like the design elements of a servant's hallway( something you might never notice as important or beautiful). The essay by Tony Hiss does makes good points about why Hedrich Blessing's work is important. The book wonderfully designed. I especially liked the way each photographer's work is referenced by their name next to the page number and the way that two photographs are paired together on the same page. The book reflects 70 years of history in ways that show how architectural photography started and the way the field has grown. This book could be broken down into different books on different subjects: retail/commercial design, tall buildings, residential interiors, etc., but overall, the book shows off Hedrich Blessing's art fabulously. A must for architectural and photographic enthusiasts!

For those of us who grew up around Chicago and know downtown, this is a great book not just a vague coffee table book. Lots of good photos and history.

I loaned this from the library and am planning on buying it on Amazon.

Highly recommended!

Gerard Wolfe has produced an inclusive and engaging book concentrating on the area in and around the Loop in Chicago. In a series of walking tours, he weaves history and architecture into a "must see" for tourists, native Chicagoans and armchair travelers, alike.

I currently live in Chicago and have had a great time exploring and learning about new (to me) places with the help of this book. There is a good amount of info. to give the reader a decent background on many of the buildings in the Loop. It omits lengthy and unnecessary history topics to focus on the highlights of each walking tour, leaving the lengthy history for other books to explore. I've learned alot about my own city by reading this book and highly recommend it.

An excellent set of tours of all neighborhoods of downtown Chicago, profusely illustrated with contemporary and archival photos, with a lively and user-friendly text. Especially helpful for the first-time visitor, although I understand it has been adopted by the Chicago Architecture Foundation as a guide to train its docents who give walking tours. I have not come across any better guide to the Loop and its surroundings, with a crisp style and useful historical facts. Dr. Gareth Shellman (shellman@csd.uwm.edu) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

I looked online for this book, because after taking it out from the public library for three times in a row, I realized I couldn't part with it. I received my copy in less than a week and it was in wonderful condition, a lot better than the library copy. If you like Chicago River history, this book is a must have type of book.

S. E. Connolly

Libby Hill's The Chicago River is the result of years of painstaking research and presents an outstanding historical survey of the Chicago River from its creation by pre-glacial forces, to the days of the French explorers using it to access the Mississippi, to its contemporary presence in one of the most densely populated urban areas in the Midwest. The Chicago River is an in-depth, comprehensive work that reveals the never ending struggle between humans and nature over the centuries, as well as the commercial, recreational, and ecological projects currently underway on and in the river. The Chicago River is highly recommended, rewarding reader for those with an interest in Chicago, natural history, environmental issues, and Midwestern history.

This book delivers on its title by providing a thorough account of the natural and unnatural (affected by humans) history of the Chicago River. Although the title is apt, it understates the breadth of fascinating material in the book. The "natural history" covers every facet of the river and its environs and provides a good primer about nature in general and the effect that people can have on it. Through the "unnatural history" we learn about the growth of Chicago and its suburbs as well as the Midwest and the United States, with the unifying theme of the river holding everything together.

It's clear that a huge amount of research went into this book, and even technical sections are presented clearly and enlivened by interestuing tidbits of information. I wish this book existed when I lived in Chicago. I would have had a much greater appreciation of what was around me.

This is one of the strange and interesting facts found in this book. The author spent six years meticulously researching and writing this book about "the historic creek that Chicago built". The book does many things for Chicago's history: it gives a great perspective of the political realities of managing one of the main forms of transportation in the city's early growth; it describes the economice of developing the land along the river (and its many courses); and it shows the part the river played in the lives of everyone along its banks. The drawings and maps in the book are carefully chosen to give the reader an accurate visual picture of the times. My favorite is the one on pg. 96 where men are lifting an entire hotel to accomodate the installation of sewers in the city. I also loved the story about the "kidnapped dredge"! The last third of the book is very pertinent to the people in the area who truly love the outdoors. It describes the development of the Skokie Lagoons and the Chicago Botanic Garden where many of us bird and the start of the natural areas restoration for which Chicago has become so well known along the banks of the North Branch. For folks who grew up in or near the city, the neighborhood references are sure to bring back fond memories but, even for those of us who did not grow up in this area, there is much to learn. This book would be a great addition to a reference library or a wonderful gift for someone interested in Chicago and its varied history. Looking for the answer to the question that began this review? Well, you'll have to read the book to see how a stroke of luck- or a pen!- made us the "City of Big Shoulders" rather than the "City of the Northwoods"!

This book is fantastic!!! Christopher Lynch really captures the story of early aviation pioneers and the challenges they faced reaching success as they soared the skies. The hundreds of photos in the book show a great story alone. The Wright Brothers, other early aviators, the movie stars! Lynch must have spent countless hours gathering all of the photos displayed in the book. This book should be recommended reading for all students of Chicago history and aviation.

An airport owned by a school system? Planes that have to wait for trains to pass? A Hindenburg-like crash that occured in the center of the city? Hundreds of fascinating photos draw the reader in and the unbelievable history unfolds in the text using sidebars, oral histories, and painstakingly researched facts. A one-of-a-kind read that was well worth the wait.

Thanks for writing such a wonderful tribute to an era of plane travel that is now long gone. I think it is important for people to know what it was like in the early days of air travel, very unlike what it is like today.

This book is fantastic!!! Christopher Lynch has really captured the history of commercial and general aviation and the early pioneers who overcame challenges in reaching success. The numerous photos in the book are phenomenonal as well. It is obvious that the author must have spent endless hours researching facts and gathering photos. The oral history really brings the story to life. This book should be recommended reading for all students of Chicago history and aviation pioneers.

Chad Davidson's uses everyday objects in a way that gives them more importance and significance. The author's technique is to teach history, interpret it and show details in a more contemporary style, rather than just spit out information the way a textbook does. A pear, starfish, lemon, and other object used in everyday life are given a new meaning. How the were once viewed as dull and mundane are now seen in a different and interesting light.
'Consolation Miracle' gives the reader another approach to learn about the ordinary things we use and see on a daily basis. This however is not Davidson's only purpose; he also wants to place the reader in the situation he is talking about through his diction and detail. Some of his word choice is not common day vocabulary but this only makes the poems better. This is a good book because Davidson is able to make someone learn new things just by having them read his poems. Things we take for granted are now given new appreciation and the reader realizes this. Becoming more aware of one's surroundings and historic origins is never something to frown upon and Davidson makes the voyage much easier.

Only Pablo Neruda can be compared to Davidson's celebrations of the objects of ordinary life in such a way that I have to throw the book down after each poem and sigh, let out exclamation points and whimperings of jealousy before continuing to the next poem. When I finish all the poems, I read them over and over again, often shaking my head at every line in disbelief of such brilliance. Consolation Miracle is charming and sexy. What a poet. What a book.

A friend recently sent me a crude, tattered chapbook entitled "Space" by Chad Davidson. It was a long lyric - the daunting kind that usually finds its way under the stack for another day. But for some reason the gods smiled on me that day and I turned the page to one of the most thought-provoking and profoundly beautiful reads in a long while. I traced that chapbook to this Chad's first book, "Consolation Miracle" - unquestionably a contemporary playmaker in a classical, throwback jersey.

If you're reading this, you have an interest in poetry, and if you have an interest in poetry, the good kind, the dynamic and moving kind, you should own this book. You'll be lucky to get a first printing.

There is a sly wisdom in these poems about the things of this world as remarkable as what we find in Richard Wilbur. In fact, the lines are as well-wrought as Wilbur. Considering Davidson's authority, his ability to teach us so much fact, history, and trivia, we are reminded of the old standards: of Auden, Lowell, or Bishop. But the poems seem to have a contemporary sheen all their own. The long poem "Space" is one of the few contemporary long lyrics worth reading.

Consolation Miracle is a mature collection (a minor miracle?) in a time when so many poets are settling for "poetry" or "the idea of a poem" rather than poems, when poets are praising artifice rather than art. It might be the strongest first book of poetry in the last ten years.

Just when you thought literary crit. was doomed to its staid exsistence, Ronell arrives on the scene. A critic (whose name escapes me) once said that while we can pick up a book, books can throw us across the room. I'm still recovering from the flight and trip this little book sent me on...

This book is revolutionary. If you've ever wondered what an artist (Avital Ronnell is a former performance artist) might be capable of coming up with if they became an academic (a professor) but were still devoted to the idea of performance, this is the answer. Think Kitaj and how his paintings is a form of interpretation of other artists' work in referencing them in the theme of his own work. In other words, Avital Ronnel's "Crack Wars" and its "analysis" of Madame Bovary is possible because it is from a field of study that is unique in that it is devoted to the study of an artform (literary arts) while itself operating in the same medium as that artform (words). The creativity exhibited in "Crack Wars", which is its most powerful proposition, shows that an interpretive "analysis" can be offered on a work of art ("Madame Bovery") without even wanting to answer the question, "What does is mean?". Much of the creative thrust seems to come from the way in which Ronnell re-metaphorizes certain elements or metaphors related to (current) drug use and applies them in the exploration of other facets of society that alters or simulates (ex. taking a "hit" or "scoring" of literature). What this does is to expand the reading of "Madame Bovery" to a whole crop of metaphors and their current exploration whose consideration in language may not have been in circulation at the time of its writing. And though this work may be on the edge of "literary studies", Ronnell is by no means a marginal figure. As head of NYU's dept of Germanic Languages, Ronnell co-lectured a graduate seminar last fall with Derrida (she is in the "Derrida" documentary with multi-colored bobby-pins relaying an interaction with Derrida's mother). Consider the language of the extensive quote below.

"Madame Bovary I daresay is about bad drugs. Equally, it is about thinking we have properly understood them. But if the novel matches its reputation for rendering its epoch- our modernity - intelligible, then we would do well to recall that epoch also means interruption, arrest, suspension and, above all, suspension of judgement. Madame Bovary travels the razor's edge of understanding/reading protocols. In this context understanding is given as something that happens when you are no longer reading. It is not the open-ended Nietzschean echo, "Have I been understood?" but rather the "I understand" that means you have suspended judgement over a chasm of the real. Out of this collapse of judgement no genuine decision can be allowed to emerge. Madame Bovary understood too much; she understood what things were supposed to be like and suffered a series of ethical injuries for this certitude. Her understanding made her legislate closure at every step of the way. She was her own police force, finally turning herself in to the authorities. She understood when the time had come to an end [...] for Madame Bovary opens herself to an altogether different history of intelligibility, in fact, to another suicide pact, cosigned by a world that longer limits its rotting to a singular locality of the unjust."

Ronell's book is a tour-de-force on many levels: for its lucid and startling close-reading of -Madame Bovary-, for the densely glittering energy (and humor) of her prose, and above all for its insight -- never before so comprehensively and convincingly argued -- into addiction as a symptomatic structure of the modern condition. (The addict, she points out, embodies a peculiar challenge for thinking about the inside/outside, mind/body relation. Emma Bovary takes us farther into questions of expenditure and circulation.) This is a must-read not only for those interested in Flaubert's novel, but in the history of subjectivity more generally. Even in its craziest moments, the book is provocative and perceptive.

Avital Ronell examines drugs addiction & mania in this amazingly well written and concisely beautiful book. A book-as-object, containing installations, special sections and poetic-philosophic passages, Crack Wars is sure to please the patient reader. Draws from Flaubert, Heidegger and Derrida...contends that this "culture inspires and supports destructive play only to punish it." A must read!

Eleanor Taylor Bland doesn't know how to write a bad mystery.

This book was good reading. Bland presented a mystery with an edge of suspense. The reading is easy and fast. Once you start, you will not put it down until you finish.

This is the first book that I have read by Taylor-Bland. I happened to run across it at the library. It was great I finished it in less than two days. It kept my interest from the very first page.I am looking forward to reading all of her books.

Talylor-Bland has done it again. This is the 3rd book in her series that I have read. She is magnificent mystery writer.

She will keep you guessing as to "who done it", but in the end you are usually surprised.

Keep up the good work Eleanor. I am reading "Done Wrong" now. I am sure it will be as good as the others.

This riveting book chronicles and analyzes the amazing Branion murder case in which Dr. John Branion was arrested, tried, and convicted for the December 1967 murder of his wife, Donna. This was a case that caught the imagination of the public, at the time, as the Branions were a prominent family within the African American community in Chicago. I remember seeing a recap of this case on "Unsolved Mysteries" many years later and thinking that it was just about impossible for the doctor to have committed this crime, unless he could have been in two places at once.

The evidence that led to Dr. Branion's arrest was virtually non-existent and wholly circumstantial, fueled by conjecture and speculation. The police work was shoddy, at best, bolstered by faulty memories and a desire to close the case. Dr. Branion was tried in the then notoriously corrupt criminal justice system of Chicago, Illinois. The defense team was spearheaded by an attorney who was astonishingly inept. The prosecution was led by a veteran prosecutor who evidently left his ethics at home everyday before heading off to work. Many years later, the lead prosecutor acknowledged that he knew that Dr. Branion himself could not have committed the murder but prosecuted him any way, as he believed that Br. Branion had paid someone to kill his wife, despite lacking a scintilla of evidence to support such a theory. To compound this travesty of justice further, the trial was presided over by a corrupt judge who took a payoff and who, many years later, was convicted of taking bribes. Need one say more?

The murder of his wife Donna was to begin an undreamt of odyssey for Dr. Branion. After his conviction, he was permitted to be out on bail while pending appeal. For nearly three years, he waited in limbo, until his appeals were exhausted. When his appeals failed, he was sentenced to a minimum of twenty years in prison. He then did the only thing that he felt an innocent man could do, when faced with the prospect of a twenty year sentence for a crime he did not commit. He fled the jurisdiction, a move that would find him spending the next twelve years on the run in Africa until his eventual capture and return to the United States in 1983. He would then spend the next seven years in prison awaiting justice. When it finally came, it was too little, too late.

The author, who together with her husband, a law professor, tirelessly worked pro bono on Dr. Branion's appeals upon his return to the United States, puts together a well researched and persuasive chronicle of Dr. Branion's tragic saga. Well written and comprehensive, this compelling narrative will keep the reader riveted to its pages. It is with good reason that the author was the recipient of the Anthony and Agatha Awards for Best True Crime. Those who enjoy the true crime genre, as well as those who enjoy mysteries, will find the story contained within the pages of this book fascinating. Bravo!

This is an outstanding account of a remarkable real life search which proved the innocence of Dr. John M. Branion, convicted in a court of law of the murder of his first wife, Donna. Please note the misspelling of the family name; it is NOT Banion, at least not on my two copies of the book!! The dedication of the writer and her attorney husband toward the solution of false conviction and false imprisonment, but not the crime itself, is an example of welcome dedication to the best of human interest and the never ending search for justice. One should not overlook the severe failings of the judicial system in this case and this book should be read by everyone interested in competent courts and officials, honesty in their dealings, and in protection of the rights of persons accused of a major crime. If only! The case became celebrated long after the crime; TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" has treated this fairly (their first 30 minute piece) and, I am told, it still runs occasionally.

The chronicle of the events surrounding this book were skillfully presented by d'Amato. I followed every detail and understood exactly how and why the author repeatedly qualified the events to show how ridiculous and sloppy those in authority were in handling this case. One man's life was wasted because of the folly in judgement of mankind. I will never have the same faith in our justice system again that I had carried all my life. I will think and rethink. This was a well written book that absorbed me completely - I felt all the pain and frustrations. I will never forget what happened to Dr. John Branion, and the events that subsequently affected the lives of so many

It's axiomatic in the publishing business that books with black protagonists will never crack a bestseller list. Thus with "The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery." Too bad. Barbara D'Amato has written a stunning and terrifying study of our injustice system and its built-in bias toward black defendants, no matter how accomplished or brilliant they may be. It took this superb writer five years to research and write, and no wonder. In any list of the best works of crime journalism, this book must stand near the top. Warning: it will move you to tears. And rage. And maybe make you lose your last vestige of respect for a "justice system" that long ago stopped providing equal justice under law.