Walsh Books

Chad Walsh Reviews C.S. Lewis With a memoir by Damaris Walsh McGuire Compiled with an introduction by Joe R. Christopher. Altadena, California, The Mythopoeic Press, 1998 ISBN 1-887726-05-5, pb, 52 pp., $4.95

If C.S. Lewis was indeed `apostle to the skeptics', as Chad Walsh once wrote of him, then Walsh was his first American disciple. The Beloit College professor's 1946 Atlantic Monthly essay thus headlined, later reprinted a year later in Reader's Digest, certainly gave many Stateside readers their initialt inkling of the writing of C.S. Lewis. Later the writer would expand the article into a book so titled, the first on Lewis. This slim book is hardly slight, nor to be slighted. Its twenty reviews, most first published in The New York Times Book Review, show a thoughtful and sympathetic reader's first response to everything from the gradual revelation of the Chronicles of Narnia to a complex appreciation of the autobiography Surprised by Joy seasoned by a friendship of a dozen years. Of special interest are two reviews of Till We Have Faces, one from The New York Herald Tribune Book Review and a more reasoned, reflective piece done later for Marquette University's journal Renascence. In the latter, reacting to the "bewilderment and frustration" this novel caused some longtime Lewis devotees, Walsh calls this Lewis' "most difficult" book and concludes by suggesting "...its quality...resembles G.K. Chesterton less and Charles Williams more than any of the author's previous work. Perhaps it is true that all religious insight, as it grows as deepens, moves toward music, liturgy, or silence. The prose writer finds the words bending and breaking with the burden they must carry. Lewis has not reached that point, but Till We Have Faces represents a far stride toward a direct perception of the love that moves the sun and the other stars." (20) While many reviews are but three paragraphs, Walsh packs a lot into them. His reviews of Narnia are informed by reading them to his four daughters as they grow. One hitherto unpublished review, a corrected typescript on Letters to an American Lady from the Wade Center at Wheaton College, adds to the value of the trove. Daughter Damaris Walsh McGuire's introduction "Memories of Joy, Jack, and Chad" is a charming memoir of her father's friendship with Lewis. Walsh, we learn, first suggested Joy Davidman write Lewis directly. In 1955, when the Walsh family visited Lewis and Joy in Oxford, Damaris writes that after a golden afternoon of charades in the Magdalen College deer park "my wise and observant mother [said] `I smell a marriage.' She was right." (xvii) Joe R. Christopher's foreword is a lucid, succinct summary of the similarities--both poets, both deeply religious men who had rejected Christianity as boys--and the differences--Walsh was liberal and political, Lewis was neither--between the two unlikely friends. Indeed, Christopher's short critical biography of Walsh will send some readers to the challenging but rewarding task of seeking out Walsh's superb poetry, such as the stark 1970 elegy "Kent" and The Psalm of Christ, forty Lenten poems, one on each verse of Ps. 22. Quibble: the exact date of these reviews' original publication might be of interest to some Lewis analysts. But that mite of a quibble aside, this small (52 pp., four by six inches) but lively book fits easily in pocket or purse (I'm a pocket kind of guy, myself) and sheds light on Lewis, including the illumination of a little girl who saw him do a charade enacting a bullfinch. No reader of Lewis should lack it.

--reviewed by Mike Foster

(To order, send ($4.95 plus $1 S&H) payable to the Mythopoeic Society to: Joan Marie Verba, PO Box 1363, Minnetonka, MN, 55345-0363)

Dr. Richard Walsh's monumental work is an absolutely vital addition to the library of any student of the Court of Valois Burgundy, and any student of the last Valois Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold.

The book covers the Italian influence in Charles the Bolds court, as well as the major diplomats and the Italian exiles and adventurers, who helped shape the ultimate form of the Burgundian army of the Ordinances, and of course explores the political course of Burgundy in the Italian peninsula, offering evidence for a more effective diplomatic strategy than has generally been acknowledged or recognized by previous scholarship.

The only critique I can add as a student of the Companies of the Ordinances of Charles the Bold, is a slight confusion as to the Italian condottiere captains tenure (sometimes brief, as the captains of companies were appointed or dismissed on an annual basis, and sometimes more often as necessity dictated) as captains of ordinance companies that existed prior to the Italian captains entering Burgundian service. Many of these existed both before and after the Italian captains tenures,which confuses the nature of the ethnic origins of the personnel of some companies with the Italian lances brought into Burgundian service in 1473. The author does address this in one example, but insufficiently in my understanding of the subject.

For a scholarly work, the book is eminently readable. If a student of Valois Burgundy could only have four authors works as the basic foundation of a library on the subject, they would include Walsh's book, alongside of Vaughn's four volumes, John Foster Kirk's Charles the Bold, and Blockman and Preveniers.

A must read for any student of the subject.

My daughter loved the colorful, wacky illustrations of Chattaboonga, the Chimp and her four animal friends. There is a lot of action in this which interested my daughter as well: an enemy name Reptilian who is pursuing the friends while they search for the key to their carousel which Reptilian had stolen. The Great White Tiger is a benevolent character who is supposed to protect them but Chattaboonga has problems trusting the Great White Tiger.

First Edition, printed in 2001 by WaterBrook Press

If you're taking the Chem regents and know the material pretty well, this is the one for you.
However, if you're not so great at Chem, you'd best be looking for the blue book, Let's Review: Chemistry, the Physical Setting (Let's Review Series) or the combination one, Chemistry Power Pack: The Physical Setting (Regents Power Packs).
Barron's makes great review books for the regents--they've got a lot of actual tests along with great explanations.

"Child Pyschopharmacology is a useful contribution to the current clinical research literature. It is suitable for trainess in psychiatry, child psychiatry subspecialty trainees, and general psychiatrists with an interest in this burgeoning field of practice."

This little book imbues the reader with a sense of peacefulness and completion..connects all things in the grand scheme of things in our universe. The circle of love, and life are nicely sewn up so that the reader feels nourished in many ways...spiritually, If you are feeling frazzled or confused, this little gem will help to put you back on track...it is really just one long sentence and ends up right where it begins. i give it four stars and a 10 and also give copies to all of my friends!

The book was edited in connection with "Collecting by Design" Metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection. An Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 15 to August 3, 2008.
This exhibition features metalwork pieces designed by prominent architects from the 19th to the 21st century. The involvement of architects in decorative arts has its roots in the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, a term generally attributed to Richard Wagner, who saw his operas as an integral artwork of music, theatre and visual art.
The book is illustrated with hundreds of images of 20th century silver.
A must for everyone interested to the matter.
A wide article about this exhibition written by Dorothea Burstyn, the President of Silver Society of Canada, is available in ASCAS website at [...]

Written by an instructor at King's Cooking studio in New Jersey and a registered dietitian, The Coming to America Cookbook: Delicious Recipes and Fascinating Stories from America's Many Cultures offers delights from Mexican, Irish, Chinese, Moroccan, Turkish, Ethiopian, Nigerian, and more cultures, immigrants from whom have come to America over the course of centuries and shared their individual cooking traditions. Recipes such as Oh-So-Hot Salsa, Korean-Style Short Ribs, The Best Baklava, Fried Bananas with Cinnamon and much more reflect a wide range of mouth-watering international morsels to please any palate. A brief introduction to the different cultures featured and a kid-friendly tone distinguish this varied and delightful cookbook.

This book is great for learning to be a court reporter. It teaches a computer compatible theory that is one of the easiest and quickest theories to learn if not the easiest.

I have read all the books written by Neale and I think his philosophy to live life is one that should be followed by everybody. If all human beings on this planet followed Neale's way of living, the world would be a much more peaceful place to live in. His book should be taken as a guide to help everybody understand why we are here. There are many people who mistake this idea and confuse his book for something like a bible and live every day according to his exact words. But that's not the point to reading these books. Read them, think about his words and apply his philosophy to your life in whichever way suits you best!!! He makes you understand that God is not a superior person standing on a cloud in the sky ready to strike you with a lightning bolt but she/he/it is a force of love, an energy that we all possess in our hearts and in our souls throughout eternity. Everything we do in life has a purpose, even those things that religions would consider "bad" or "evil". We are living a necessary cycle in this universe heading to the same place that we will all eventually reach. Read his book and act upon your life with one very important element: love. Love is all. Sonia Roman