Butler Books

It took me months to finally locate this wonderful treasure trove of poodle collectibles. Not only does it display various poodle collectibles, but it's a mini sociological look at the American culture of that era. Elaine Butler did a superb job in compiling this book.

This book on poodle collectibles is a must for all poodle enthusiasts!The photograps are clear and in focus,the colors lovely and accurate.It was amazing to se so much colected suff from the States.We have a large collection of poodle memorabelia our selfs in the U.K and would love to have such a lovely book of our"lot". CONGRATULATIONS TO THE COMPILER AND AUTHOR .

I expected much more. I was very excited that I had located this discontinued book. But my joy faded when I realized that the contents were mainly the limited collection of the author. She has many nice objects but certainly not enough to entitle the book as collectibles of the 50's and 60's. It should have been called "My Poodle Collection."

A beautiful 152 page softbound book with 100's of large, sharp, full color photos of every type of poodle collectible from the 1950's and 60's. Values are shown (1996). There is a brief introduction into this collectible. Topics range from Kitchen Canines, Poodle Lamps, Spectacled Pets, Parasol Pooches and Costumed Canines, to Doggie Duds, Sew Man Poodles, Dogs in Toyland, and Peteena Ads. Items include toilet paper dispensers, shower curtains, pins and broaches, cigarette holders, compacts, greeting cards, and hundreds of other items. A poodle lovers must have !

R.F. Foster's two-volume biography (second volume to come in 2000) is a model of articulate and knowledgable scholarship, arguably comparable to the great biographies of Joyce and Wilde written by Richard Ellman. Foster's work leaves nothing to be desired. It easily excels previous Yeats biographies written by Cootes, Jeffares, etc.

For the first 100 pages or so, this book had me completely. Roy Foster writes with elegant brio and has a historian's eye for the wider events and contexts that shaped Yeats's early years. Where previous biographers like Ellman take a sort of lighthouse approach to their subject, treating the passions and conflicts of Yeats's day as fuel for the poetry that was destined to outshine them, Foster is more like an anteater, eagerly snuffling up the everyday bits of information that give the flavor of Yeats's multifaceted life as he actually lived it, before his later fame and incessant revisions smoothed it into a pattern.

After a while though, the book tends to bury Yeats in a mass of trivia that include everything from the menu at one of his literary dinners to the prices he charged for his lectures. This level of detail could be enlightening if Foster stopped for breath more often to tell us why these things are important. Too often though he keeps his head firmly down with the ants, cataloging the day-to-day intrigues of a very complicated life without linking them to any kind of larger interpretation of Yeats's personality or development. Instead, Foster spends his 500+ pages introducing new names at the rate of one or so per page, most of them disappearing by the end of the chapter never to be heard from again. We get the intrigues of various Irish nationalist factions, potted bios of minor figures on the Dublin and London art scenes, humorous sketches of Yeats's fellow-travellers in his sundry mystical societies. It was hard to see Yeats after a while with all these minor figures crowding the stage.

If Foster does have an interpretation of his own, as far as I can tell it's a revisionist one. Where Ellman or Jeffaries saw Yeats's life as a drama of painful self-creation, Foster sends to see an ambitious man on the make, an aggressive networker who wasn't beyond bending the truth if it helped his own advancement. Even his life-long passion for Maud Gonne, one of the key sources of his poetry, was, according to Foster, in part a self-conscious realization that a great poet needed a great passion to write about. In trying to bring Yeats back down to earth, I think Foster overcompensates by making him more canny and worldly than the sexual naivete, table rapping, faery talk and aesthetic posturing of these years suggest. Worst of all, Foster shows almost no interest in Yeats's poetry, the reason we're reading the biography in the first place. I put down the book admiring Foster's energy and mastery of such a huge anthill of facts, but I couldn't shake the feeling that a lot less would have told us a lot more.

William Butler Yeats offers a life of contradictions. Born in Dublin to a middle-class Protestant family, Yeats went on to become one of the premier poets of the twentieth century. As a writer and member of the Irish literary community, he also helped to forge Irish national identity through his words and his deeds. In this biography, the first of two volumes, Roy Foster offers an account of Yeats' development into one of the leading figures of the Irish literary scene.

This is not an easy book. Foster recounts Yeats' life in what is sometimes excruciating detail, covering every movement and literary battle the poet undertakes. Moreover, as he does so he assumes the reader's familiarity with both the background of late nineteenth century Ireland and the members of the Irish literary community. People appear in his narrative with little introduction, creating a confusing jumble of names that limits the appreciation of their role in Yeats' life.

Such problems aside, this is a first-rate biography. Foster does a great job examining Yeats' life, in a text that while long is never dense. His coverage of Yeats' occult interests is particularly good, as is that of the poet's involvement in nationalist causes - both integral aspects of his poetry. Foster's argument that Yeats' involvement in the mystical was a reaction to the declining position of Protestants in Ireland, an effort to cope with the sense of dislocation by asserting psychic control, is a compelling one that helps to fit more of his poetry into its contemporary context. Foster helps this process; while he asserts that his biography is about what Yeats did rather than what the poet wrote he does offer a perceptive commentary on aspects of Yeats' work, which helps us better appreciate the connection between the man and his writings. Thanks to this, we have a book that is essential for understanding such a complicated literary figure and the role he played in his times.

This is loaded with surprise after surprise. Foster's insights into the poetry, through historical and social readings, are often revelatory. My only complaint is that many of the tales he tells tend to have the same emotional architecture due to a descirptive repetition: this makes it a little monotonous at times. But this is a quibble. This book is great. When is Vol. 2 going to be published?

Great book. It is sometimes hard to find books that relate to art and history. I love this book in the class and at home with my own children.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with the 5-star ratings this book received previously. My 6-year old son will do anything arts & crafts related, and he showed no interest at all in this book. The only benefit from this book is that it got him thinking about what else he could create using his own imagination and a paper bag. As a side note, 12 of the 21 hats were for girls which left only 9 to choose from for my son.

This is the best book for a rainy afternoon and a bored child (children)!"What Can You Do With A Paper Bag" written by Judith Cressy and published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has 21 paper bag projects geared to fascinate your child and encourage creativity and imagination.

Step-by-step instructions, very easy to follow, illustrate how to make Mayan masks, a Pharoah's headdress, crowns, a Fang (African) mask, a "Perseus Winged Helmut," George Washington's hair, and many other clever ideas. All you need are paper bags, (grocery store brown bags are good), scissors, glue, tape, crayons or paints, and an eager child. The humblest of supplies can provide hours of fun.

**A side note - The book was inspired by works of art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It can also be used as a teaching tool for showing children the art of different cultures at different periods in time.

Excellent and highly recommended!
JANA

This book, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is a TERRIFIC book if you are interested in childrens' crafts and art. The book provides very detailed and easy-to-follow instructions on hat and mask making using your average grocery store variety paper bag (and a few other on-hand items). The hats and masks are all inspired by works of art found in the museum. Our elementary school are using these activities at our Spring Arts Festival. The results are dynamic and the costs for matierials is little to nothing.

Ellmann was only 30 when he published this in 1948, less than 10 years after Yeats's death; he was the first biographer to see Yeats's papers in their chaotic entirety. What an astounding job! You'd think this would read like a warm-up for his later magisterial biographies of Joyce and Wilde, but "The Man and the Masks" holds its own against those works, giving a sensitive, economical portrait of an unusually fractured poet.

Ellmann stresses Yeats's life-long effort to forge his thoughts into a unified system in the teeth of inbred skepticism, shyness and vacillation. He draws a discreet curtain over the sexual parts of Yeats's life but compensates with a keen understanding of the courage it took for this diffident, ill-read & dreamy man to make himself by fits and starts into a modern poet. My favorite parts of the book were the sections where Ellmann compares earlier drafts of the poems to the printed versions, showing just how hard-won Yeats's genius was. He tempers a critical eye towards Yeats's excesses--the wild mysticism, the Fascist sympathies, the arrogant public demeanor--with an understanding of Yeats's deep need for masks. According to Ellmann, Yeats's theories and systems weren't dogmas so much as postures he assumed to fulfill his own desire for a certainty of belief he never quite attained. Ellmann shows how that drive shaped the poems and ultimately rescued them from the deadness certitude would have brought. A classic study and an excellent starting-point for further reading on Yeats's life and work.

Though I have the greatest admiration for Ellman, I must say that this critical biography of Yeats has a few too many blindspots, is too vague and shapeless in its outline of Yeats' life, to satisfy entirely. Roy Foster's two-volume account is ultimately preferable because far more complete.

THE definitive, open, and engaging study of the man T.S.Eliot declared the greatest poet of his age. Richard Ellman is no longer with us, but this is a monument of Yeats biography and criticism, the book which all subsequent biographers try to rewrite. The text itself, written as it was amidst a flurry of uncollected papers in the forties and with the co-operation of W.B.'s widow George, is understandably reticent about some elements of the poet's private life, notably his early lovers and extra-marital affairs; but the introduction printed with this new edition fills in many of the blanks, and gives the reasoning for Ellman's assertion that Yeats's affair with Maud Gonne was indeed finally consummated, confirming a suspicion hitherto based only on ambiguous references in letters and the poem 'A Man Young and Old'. Most of all, however, it is Ellman's sensitive and insightful treatment of Yeats's at once shy and self-possessed nature that impresses; the writer will never have a more accurate critic, and the man never a more sincere and biting appraisal of his contradictions. This is the place to start if you are interested in Yeats: you may not find the book or the man that you were expecting, an easy dreamy life of lost women and lake isles, but the portrait is truer, and the artistic genius more clearly delineated than in any other book on the subject, and there have been many. Ellman went on to write the definitive lives of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde; that his first essay in literary biography stands comparison with these is its own testament.

Ellmann was both a masterful biographer and first- rate literary critic. In this early book he writes an excellent account of the life of Yeats, and combines with an overall analysis of Yeats' literary development. He probes deeply into the symbolic and mythic meaning of Yeats' poetry and provides for the lay-reader a key to this often complex poetry's, understanding.
Ellmann would go on later to write his much larger masterpiece , the biography of Joyce- but here as a young man he shows a surprising depth of understanding of the full range of Yeats' problems through his remarkable creative, and not easy personal, life.

Although I was reluctant to make the purchase, I am now glad I did. "All cut to pieces and gone to Hell" is a very atypical civil war book. First, it is an edited collection of essays rather than a battle monograph or campaign study. Second, it is primarily a study of the circumstances surrounding an infamous atrocity at a small battle in Arkansas. Finally, for such a controversial and potentially explosive topic, the tone is refreshingly measured rather than a shrill condemnation or derisively dismissive defense.

The controversy surrounding Poison Spring arises from the massacre of black wounded and prisoners by rebel soldiers and officers. The accounts presented in the book by both sides reveal that the massacre was not accidental, coincidental, or unsanctioned by the officers. The rebels also killed most of the white troops who fell into their hands. The Confederate Choctaw regiment present also scalped these men. Interestingly, the other US Colored unit present would later retaliate against the Confederate troops by attempting to kill all enemy wounded in their area of the field at Jenkins' Ferry. This was a conscious decision made by the full officer staff of the regiment shortly after Poison Spring.

What editor Mark Christ has done is to compile relevant essays by various authors that outline conditions and events preceding that fateful battle at Poison Spring, Arkansas. In spite of the essay format, this work flows well and is an easy read. At only 147 pages including notes and index, it is a brief work. Each essay has endnotes that also serve as the bibliography. Illustrations and photos are adequate, but the two tiny maps are insufficient.

After Dr. DeBlack's essay overview of the setting of the Camden expedition, the essays shift to the heart of the work. Carl Moneyhon presents an excellent examination of the Southern population's views toward slaves, free blacks, and black soldiers. The core of this is a fascinating explanation of paternalism, the fear of slave insurrection, coupled with contradictory delusions that slaves would remain loyal. This does much to explain the motives and rationale for events that would follow. The concept of blacks fighting their former masters was considered a betrayal and insurrection for which the only punishment that would restore the former order was death.

From there, Ronnie Nichols reviews the changing roles of blacks in the military before and during the war. He points out that until 1820, blacks had been allowed in the U.S. military and that thousands had served faithfully in the in the Revolution and the War of 1812. The era of the Missouri Compromise changed that. The 1857 Dred Scott decision removed much of the remaining protection that free blacks had gained, and in 1860 Arkansas passed legislation to expel all free Negroes. Although nearly 180,000 blacks would eventually serve in the Union army, initial acceptance of black regiments was slow. The various Confiscation acts began to strip slaveholders of their labor and by late 1862 a few black units had formed.

Frank Arey's essay on the 1st Kansas Colored Troops at Honey Springs explores what might have been a contributing factor to the Poison Spring massacre: the same black unit badly mauled the 29th Texas, forcing them to abandon their colors. The Texans sought vengeance in Arkansas. The author's examination of Honey Springs' accounts from both sides revealed no indications of atrocities by black troops.

Potential readers are reminded that this is not a detailed battle study. Dr. Gregory Urwin wrote the final chapter that recounts the engagement at Poison Spring, the aftermath, and retribution at Jenkins' Ferry. While it is fairly detailed in some particulars, it is not a complete package. The hard to find (out of print) "Steele's Retreat from Camden and the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry" by Edwin C. Bearss covers the Poison Spring battle reasonably well. (Bearss book devotes about 41 pages to the Poison Spring engagement, with a single, fairly detailed tactical map, order of battle, and unit casualty tabulations.) Urwin's tactical map is a very small and greatly simplified diagram based on Bearss' map. Taken together, this book and Bearss' work present the battle well.

The superb examination and summary of Southern race relations make this book a worthwhile read and should open a few eyes. This is also a book that will dispel doubts as to whether or not claims of atrocities versus black troops were valid or vastly overstated.

This telling of the events of the spring of 1864 is well researched and well told. It moves well without sacrificing to historical accuracy. There is plenty of good history but with the show of humanity found in this little known portion of the American Civil War.

Expertly compiled and painstakingly edited by Civil War expert Mark K. Christ, "All Cut To Pieces And Gone To Hell" carefully examines an April 18, 1864 massacre of black Union soldiers by Confederate troops. Distilling the role race relations played in the conflict, and why the usual rules of engagement were ignored in favor of wholesale bloodshed, "All Cut To Pieces And Gone To Hell" uses a variety of Civil War historical resources to expertly piece together a truly human understanding of a particular aspect of civil war history.

Like many of Bastion Press's books, Arms & Amror is a great survey of armament possibilities within the core rules of the D&D system. From mundane weapons and armor to extensive lists of magic qualities, Arms & Armor delivers a heck of a lot of material. Optional rules adds are also included, such as armor as DR, divine items, and legendary weapons (ala Unearthed Arcana or The Game Mechanics' legendary items books). As this shows, some of that material is compiled from other d20 sources, which is part of what makes the OGL great, while other bits are original. It's not totally 3.5e compliant, especially in the monster section, but this is a relatively minor point. I'm not sure anyone needs this book, but it cannot fail to add spice and variety to your d20 fantasy campaign.

Found here are the same weapons that were contained in the original edition, and all have been updated so as to be compatible with the new 3.5 rules. Furthermore, all of the weapons from the SRD have been included, so that everything is found in one place, to minimize your need to flip back and forth between books. In addition, a number of new weapons have been added to the roster. The weapons represented here represent a wide variety of cultures, from that of the Oathbound campaign setting, to conventional fantasy, to martial arts weapons from ancient China.

There are numerous new qualities that can be added to weapons. So many, in fact, that the single table had to be split into four separate tables! A new quality, base enchantments, provides a minor magical enhancement that adds to the cost of the weapon, but doesn't add an effective bonus. An iconic weapon, for example, costs 2,000 gp above market price, and permits the user to change the weapon into a small cloak-pin, brooch, badge, or coin. The moment such a weapon leaves the owner's person, it immediately resumes its normal size and dimensions.

There are a few new specific weapons as well, including class-oriented weapons that are designed to be most beneficial to members of a particular class. While not restricted to certain classes, these weapons are best put to use by those classes, enhancing class features or skills most often possessed by the class in question. Take, for instance, the harp bow. This magical bow has multiple strings and can be played like a harp, granting anyone proficient with such an instrument a bonus to their Performance skill.

As with the weapons, all of the unique armors found in the original Arms & Armor have made it into this version, along with several new ones, all rendered for 3.5 compatibility. Likewise, all of the armors from the SRD have been incorporated into the tables for ease of reference. The rules for armor for creatures of varying size and the table for donning armor have also been ported over. Even more cool, the rules from Unearthed Arcana regarding armor as DR have been brought over, and updated for the new armor types presented here. There are also rules for using a shield or parrying weapon specifically to parry attacks.

Arms & Armor also introduces a few optional rules for handling artifacts, making them true extensions of divine power. Along the same lines, the concept of legendary weapons starts with a simple weapon of a mere +1 enchantment and builds it up as its wielder grows in power to a weapon of artifact status. If this sounds familiar to you, you've probably either read Unearthed Arcana or the original rules for legendary weapons and scions from the Artifacts of the Ages series from the Game Mechanics. Those rules have been reprinted here for your convenience if you don't happen to have either of those two volumes. A similar feature introduced here are magical ability chains, improving a weapon or armor's magical abilities by building on existing ones of a similar nature. Intelligent weapons and outsider weapons are also examined, the latter deriving their power from an extraplanar creature bound into the weapon (a staple of high fantasy!).

The biggest disappointment for me was the artwork. A fair portion (though not all) of it is lifted directly from the original Arms & Armor. What's more, the wonderful color illustrations of that volume have been reduced here to a bland black & white, which sometimes has the effect of reducing the beauty of Todd Morasch's artwork significantly. Since the original book was a softcover, but still rendered in full color, I held out hopes that this volume, a hardcover, would be as well. Sadly, that isn't the case.

If you have the original, I'd say that there's enough here to justify picking this one up as well. This is more than simply an update, it includes some new material and the material from the SRD has been integrated into it, making it even more useful. Whether you're a player or a DM, there is something in this book that will doubtlessly appeal to you.

This is a 3.5 update of their previous work Arms & Armor v3.0. They also added to this supplement by including open source content found in dozens of other products, doubling its size from the previous version. By combining all of the popular abilities in creating weapons or armor into one book makes this tremendously useful for those of us that design our own.

I highly recommend this product to everyone, GMs and players alike. Even though the art is of questionable quality, it plays such a small part in this products usefulness. With this book, there is no more paging through dozens of other supplements trying to find that particular ability you were looking for.

Yeats is without doubt one of the great English language poets of the twentieth century . His greatest poems and lines are in the hearts and minds of most lovers of poetry. How disappointing then to feel that the person is in many ways so mediocre in both his thought and his personal relationships. The whole business of automatic writing is one part of it. But also the whole search for some kind of mythic system smacks of superstition, and perhaps makes Yeats suitable for an age where the 'New Age' sections of bookstores are far larger than the Religion of Philosophy sections.
As a person Yeats seems a somewhat remote husband and distant relative even to his closest family members. This autobiography has no great moving intellectual center, no ideas which truly make sense in understanding our world . " Things fall apart the center does not hold, " the great lines which describe our condition are unfortunately not complemented by a true and deep understanding of the human situation.

This new, standard edition is the first to provide explanatory notes. The text has been rigorously checked against earlier editions and manuscripts. The index usefully includes both the text and the notes. (I am editor of the book.)

The more I have learnt about Yeats and his life the more approachable and enjoyable I have found his poetry.

I bought this book for a close friend and fellow lover of Yeats poetry and read it after she did. Yeats writes about his life and philosophy with the same skill and breadth he brings to his poetry. I found the notes added for this edition both useful and interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Yeats, his philosophy, life and poetry.

Right from the start, Butler hooks you into his tale of Cold War intrigue, and he keeps you hooked right to the thrilling climax. The characters are deftly drawn, and the details nail down the plot's ring of authenticity. This is a book you'll remember, whether you've served in the military or not.

It seems so strange that the events described in Border Duty only took place a short time ago. Butler really brings back this world of intrigue, battle, and suspense--a thriller that many of us who read the news can really understand. The descriptions in Border Duty are very vivid, as if Butler himself had once been a border guard and had walked those same paces himself. I highly recommend this book!

The lives of two young soldiers from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain intersect in a tangle of blood and intrigue in Robert Butler's new book Border Duty. When an East German border officer attempts to defect on Christmas Eve during the winter of 1988, he unknowingly sets in motion a series of tragic events. As a witness to the defection, a young American cavalry officer finds himself bound up in his enemy's fate. When East Germany implodes just months later, the German soldier vows revenge against the only person whose involvement he can identify: the decorated American officer.
Robert Butler weaves an intense and multi-layered story about the conflicting loyalties of the military: duty to country and faithfulness to oneself-and the lengths one has to go to preserve both-in this heart-pumping military thriller. This was great read and should be a movie!

Having not found a suitable husband during the three years since her come-out, Lady Sarah Thorndike must suffer the consequences. Daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Somerton have, in the past, never married less than an earl, and this daughter will be no exception! In their haste to have her married, Sarah's parents, the present Duke and Duchess, find what they consider to be a suitable candidate -- Fitzwilliam Hornsby, Viscount Lyleton. Actually, they found his parents, the Earl and Countess of Lavesly, who were, coincidentally, also looking for a marriage partner for their recalcitrant child.

Unfortunately, this young man is much more fond of clothes, the ton, gaming, and any number of other things than he is of the idea of marriage, let alone the actuality. It was something he knew he'd have to do someday, but preferably not for another ten or twenty years.

The two sets of parents contrive a summer visit of some two dozen acquaintances at the Viscount's own estate, Charlisle, so that the two young people can meet, get accustomed to each other, get betrothed, and then get married a month later. Nothing to it!

Neither set of parents nor the young people themselves, reckon on the disruption caused by the butler. John Rawlins is the son of a Duke, but from the wrong side of the blanket. In aid of his friend, Fitz, he assumes the office of butler for the duration of the summer party at Charlisle.

As the young couple contrive to become un-betrothed, the butler is not the ONLY one who laughed!

How sad for the rest of us that the author is no longer writing these books!

The hero and heroine are smart, likable, and fun. Their attraction is convincing, circumstances are amusing...

A duke's daughter who prefers the warmth and humanity of her servants, and a duke's bastard who was raised by servants meet at a summer house party. She is being married off to his best friend, and through a lot of ingenuity he, she, and 'the other he' make themselves hilariously unacceptable. There's wonderful use of poetry to spark dialog and discussion of actual events of Wellington's battles show us many dimensions of character. These characters and this author are worth knowing

This man was very special to me and I could only find this book on Amazon. Your a life saver.

Mac Butler was a citizen soldier, an ordinary guy who was called to active duty. He served in the tradition of his forebearers, including General John "Mac" Alexander McClernand who was commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln. He served and inspired his men, and this book tells the story ably and humbly. That their unit was the only one not to give ground during the Battle of the Bulge is ample testimony of Col. Butler's leadership. (The book reports that at times enemy artillary came in from nearly all points of the compass.)

In my opinion this book describes in vivid detail why our citizen-soldiers won the war against the professional soldiers of Germany. This is a great read for an up-close perspective on one ordinary man's willingness to give all for his men and his country.

In reunions after the war, the men showed their continued loyalty and respect for Mac when they presented him with a plaque commemorating the "Battlin' Blue Bastards."

The book has a good story to tell..about a unit that won the Presidential Unit Citation for its activities during the Battle of the Bulge. He makes extensive use of quotes from individuals from the unit but within the official historical view of the activities of this battalion...good read!!!