Bergman Books

Professor Bergman taught Jewish thought for many years at Hebrew University. This small work presents the basic principles of his understanding of Judaism. It is an excellent introduction to comprehending why Judaism is a faith which one can wisely and rationally choose to make one's own.

Ray Bergman is World famous for his classic treatise "Trout", and very deservedly so. But even more splendid is the contribution he made to the angling world via 26 years of editing a monthly column for Outdoor Life magazine.
"Fishing with Ray Bergman" was to be the swan song of the warm, genuine Bergman but he never made it. The daunting challenge to pick up the banner fell to Ted Janes of Outdoor Life and, pouring through 300+ of Ray's best columns Mr. Janes did indeed produce "Fishing with Ray Bergman", in Ray's own words.
"Fishing with Ray Bergman" is like going to the lakes and streams and creeks with the nicest, most knowledgable Dad of the nicest, most knowledgable fisherman you've ever met or heard of.
Above I see you can buy it these days for 59 cents. "Fishing with Ray Bergman" for that price or fifty times that price is the best deal of any kind you'll ever make in your life. And if you could buy just one book with which to teach a kid, male or female, about the right ways and attitudes toward fishing and the outdoors... get out your 59 cents because "Fishing with Ray Bergman" is The One.

Contains English translations of the screenplays for Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), and The Magician (1958). Obviously, all four plays date around the same time period, a crucial coming-to-being turning point in the career of, almost inarguably, the greatest film-maker of all time. Also included is an introductory conversation exerpt by Bergman on film-making and a Preface by producer Carl Anders Dymling. The book I own was put out by Clarion, a division of Simon & Schuster: Books by the same title have been published, I believe, under the same name by different publishers, and I can't be sure as to the content or arrangement of them.

What strikes me most about Bergman's screenplays is the tremendous literary value of them, aside from their being an invaluable supplementary resource to the films. Reading the screenplays, one learns to catch the more subtle pieces of the films, sees the parts that were meant to be emphasized, the parts left out, and can examine closer the dialogue and events to extract their meanings. The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, of course, are universally regarded as milestones and alone make the book a worthy purchase; but I find most refreshing the addition of the Magician, an overlooked favorite of mine that has always seemed to me a great precursor to Tarkovsky. Even if you don't have the films or haven't seen them, however, Bergman's screenplays stand well enough on their own and deserve to be in any library of literature.

I'd like to find these in the original Swedish: perhaps a duel-language text might have made this book more worthwhile. In any case, highly recommended.

Not really a review. This book includes The Touch; Cries and Whispers; The Hour of the Wolf; The Passion of Anna. That's all I wanted to say.

Bergman, a gay academic and poet, wrote one of the better books of gay men's criticism in the 1990s with GAIETY TRANSFIGURED (1991). It is a sign of its times that Bergman tried to float a proposal for a book like it ten years before and had no luck doing it. The second time around, someone came looking for him: Frank Lentricchia, to be exact. The result is a thoughtful, unsystematic treatment of the evolution of gay men's literary "self-representation" (as the subtitle has it). The ten chapters here range widely in period and type of authors covered, from Whitman to Holleran. Issues related to AIDS and antigay witchhunts (which contributed to F. O. Matthiessen's decision to kill himself) keep the book firmly in the realm of sexual politics, but aesthetics (a chapter on camp) and multicultural queerness (a treatment of Eldridge Cleaver's attack on James Baldwin as a gay writer) are included. The most unusual chapter has to do with cannibalism as a metaphor for homosexual sensibility in works like Melville's TYPEE and Williams's SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER. While most of the standard writers of the emerging gay canon are here, Bergman also brought my attention to a number of writers I didn't know, such as Francis Grierson. The author is conversant with contemporary theory (particularly feminist), but theory doesn't dominate here. What does is a fresh, quirky survey of a wide variety of literary works from a gay perspective. Anyone who wants a readable tour of one man's encounter with (primarily) American gay writers would do well to pick this book up.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Extremely helpful - it made my transition from college to the real world much much easier. A fabulous book to give to a recent graduate.

Manara at his best...I personally think that he wrote this one when everybody started to classify him as a cheap porn artist who knows only how to portrait a pair of breasts. Bergman is the character which Moebius always wanted to create : an adventourer seeking the 'great adventure' throughout the world, meeting all kinds of characters and involving into various bizzare and interesting situations...and the best part, his adventure actually never ends !

A must buy for every Manara fan

I work for an agency that supports people who have someone they love recovering from schizophrenia, bipolar, psychosis, and/or other forms of mental distress. I have found this guide to be very helpful as both an education tool, and as a supportive manual. The information complied in this book can help families and people coming off drugs feel less afraid, less alone, and more informed about choices regarding medications. Traditionally, good information about coming off psychiatric medications has been difficult to find- This book fills a much needed gap. It is accessible, well-written, and highly informative. Anyone considering going off their medication would find the material useful and thought provoking. Anyone who works in the mental health field needs to have this book in their organization as a resource. For years people have been trying to go off their medications with little or no support from the system- let's change that.

As a former resident of Richmond, I know that spooky stuff abounds in this quiet southern city and Scott and Sandi Bergman do a great job of bringing those classic ghost tales to life. I guarantee you will have goosebumps hearing some of these creepy stories. And I can't wait to return to Richmond to go on one of their ghost tours!

David Bergman's "Heroic Measures" contains beautiful poems about the nature of life and living, that are universal between straight and gay audiences alike. It is poetry without pretension, that accepts itself easily and flows when read aloud. It does not try to outdo itself with meaningless metaphor and aggravating allusion, and instead honestly tells stories. This collection has such a varied repertoire of topics, too, from the much-praised AIDS poetry, to the nature of travel and family, with some especially meaningful poetry about fathers. With their unexpected rhyme, range of subjects, and sheer honesty, I found these poems to be some of the most enjoyable modern poetry I've read in a great while.