New York Books

In his book, The Wounded Body, Dennis Patrick Slattery weaves together wounds and meanings, intertwines psyche and soma, and plaits mimesis and memory into life stories. If, as he believes, our origins and our destinies are within the poetics of our bodies, then who would turn away from tracing origins through memory and destiny through desire? Who would not unravel some of the knots of their body's images? Dennis Slattery heeds Shakespeare's teaching that our wounds are mouths and teaches the reader to listen, as he does, with rapt devotion to their stories. His imaginative discussion recalls works by Homer, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Dostoevsky, Melville, Tolstoy, Flannery O'Connor and Toni Morrison. Slattery reminds the reader that wounds and fissures mark the places vulnerable to penetration by unknown deities. Our wounds are "where the hinge is located that marks the pivot of our history and destiny" (15). He poses the archetypal question: What is the wound asking of us? What story does it want to tell? The wound's meaning cannot be teased out logically. Only imagination will lead us to the story. Our wounds want to be recognized and dialogue with us. They want to matter, want to be incarnated. And as Hamlet teaches us, "perhaps the fullest form of embodiment is to be remembered in a story, for it is as close to immortality to which a mortal can aspire" (73). Read this book slowly, savouring its poetics, its reveries, its meanderings, and its gaps. The gaps invite the reader's memories to intertwine past with present and mingle with Slattery's reflections in a confluence of healing spider's webs for our wounds. Pay particular attention to the stories that resonate, for "the essence of mimesis is somatic, visceral, a shared physic element wherein we feel the action, the wounding, the marking of a body, in our own being" (13). Dennis Slattery, whose namesake is Dionysos -- the god of tragedy, reminds us that we must delve "deeply into the wound, the infection, the pollution that tragedy forces us to face; to escape from it is to invite its doubling intensity" (72). Then Dionysos leads us to Hermes, whose value "lies in being a mediator, an in-between figure who gives imagination depth and allows the ordinary things of the world to be remembered fully and experienced deeply" (143). By bowing deeply to both these gods, Slattery writes a vibrant and meaningful book about the wounded body. The most important part of writing a book is asking worthy questions. This author draws upon the most profound literature of twenty-five hundred years to refine his questions. If our wounds have stories to tell about our origins and destinies, who would dare to ignore their every imaginative appearance? Dennis Slattery never suggests that the wound's story will be redemptive. He cautions the reader that "the theory used to guide the study was itself wounded" (237). For in listening to our wound's stories, we hear about fragmentation, not integration. And I wonder, is fragmentation indeed redemptive?

In a society where technology is becoming the predominant timepiece, Slattery reminds us that the body is always there recording. In this remarkable exploration rooted in some of literature's greatest works, Slattery dares us to remember. He encourages us to peel off another layer, to turn off the machines and sit in ourselves with our woundedness. He believes that in exploring our wounds,we come to know ourselves. For Slattery,wounds are the way in and the way out. They mark the point of suffering while divulging the site of healing. A man of his word, he wears his perspective on his sleeve, introducing his book with a tale of his own woundedness. His book teaches that the body holds the memory and all possibilities are therein contained. This book is dressing for anyone who has been wounded. Applause, applause, applause . . .

In a day when we are awash in advice about how to fix our bodies, and advice about how to heal them and discover our long-supressed spiritual selves as well, this book by Dennis Patrick Slattery comes as a welcome antidote. Reading about these great stories, with Slattery's provocative and insightful commentaries, we can better meditate on our common humanity, especially our common bonds of suffering. For all the pain and grief they entail, our wounds, personal and collective, appear to be at one with the Muses, and they bring forth poetry. I recommend this book to psychologists as well as to others who are interested in great literature.

Even in a world as worshipful of the body such as ours, the ancient split between matter and spirit, between body and soul is still so pervasive that it is an anomaly to think that the body is our way -- indeed the only way -- of existing in the world. Humans are not spirits condemned to the prison of the flesh, waiting for their liberation from matter and escape into the spiritual paradise. Rather they are incarnated spirits and ensouled bodies. They can achieve their wholeness only though their bodies -- and more precisely, their wounded bodies -- since the world in which they live is marked by diseases, pains, psychic sufferings and ultimately death. Through a series of insightful and profound analysis of literary, psychological, artistic and religious masterpieces -- from the ancient Greek tragedies to contemporary American novels -- Slattery offers us a way of imagining our wounded bodies, and through this imagination, reconnect them with the spirits. We owe Slattery an enormous debt for his powerful imagination. No one who reads this book will remain unchallenged and unchanged by his way of seeing the human body as an icon of the divine. I most strongly recommend his book to those seeking wholeness and spiritual transformation.

What a joy it was to turn away from a discussion with a psychologist who believes in psyche as quantifiable brain extrusion (how come these hermetically sealed folks are always the politically correct ones as well?) and get lost in this wondrous work by a marked man known to frequent the Pacifica Graduate Institute, one of my favorite hangouts and a delphic magnet for depth-oriented subversives.

The author has given us a finely researched prose-poem pulsing with creative insights and daring questions: a psychology of the gut for a malnourished time when so much psychology has become gutless as well as bloodless, dismembered and disembodied. A time that has recorded the inversion of Jung's dictum that the gods have become diseases, for when "the cry for myth" is strangled in the rationalist throat, diseases inevitably become our gods.

A few quotations from the book:

"The wound is a special place, a magical place, even a numinous site, an opening where the self and the world may meet on new terms, perhaps violently, so that we are marked out and off, a territory assigned to us that is new, and which forever shifts our tracing in the world."

"Identity involves suffering, a suffering into the self through soul."

"Where we have been marked is where the soft spot of our being is, where we are most finite; but it is also where the hinge is located that marks the pivot of our history and our destiny."

This book won't catch you if you're into trance-ending your wounds and weaknesses, flying over them into a stratospheric spirituality that gleams with powdered sugar and positive thinking: a Promethean leap that disregards the shadow over which it later stumbles into a deflating, angry bitterness akin to that of Captain Ahab, the idealist-gone wrong who raged, "There can be no hearts above the snowline."

But if you want to listen to the spaces opened up by hurts ("Invulnerable am I only in the heel," wrote Nietzsche), then this enfleshed poetic journey through literature, myth, and psyche itself will stir your blood and get your soul in motion.

I picked up this book simply because I have enjoyed Benjamin Lloyd as an actor. I never expected that he would also be a wonderful writer. In addition, Lloyd provides an insight into the joys and struggles of an actor and will help anyone contemplating a career as an artist. It should also be a must read for the parents, spouse or friend of the "struggling artist". ( And, almost by definition, they all must have their struggles. )

Fortunately, no one need struggle as they read this book. It will capture you from the first through the last page! I loved it.

Duane Malm

This riveting book using the letters of the 2 main characters wonderfully developes the interplay between acting, openness, fragility and trust. Using the theater metaphor, lloyd details feelings, emotional interplay, and community building as the constant themes of bringing the "spirit"and "life" into our temporal life. His chosen world of acting and directing demonstrate the ephemeral in our concrete denotative world,AND also brings out the eternal through the incorporation of the impact of art on the observer and the participant. Poetry, music, and drama become meaningless exercises without the emotional and spiritual transportation of performer and audience to a new "weltanschaung".
The specific techniques described are beyond my experience but resonate clearly with similar techniques of relating and isolating specific aspects of relationships in my medical career. I was always amazed by the change in surgeons personalities when they were wearing a mask and when they "out of costume". No question that the mask provided a screen for their persona. The arrogant but friendly and understanding selves disappeared behind the mask replaced by the distant focused martinet.
Most beautifully handled is the spiritual growth within a community that is open and loving and unavailable in a solo setting. "Alice" "walks the talk" and the handling of her "Spiritual Inventory" as she accepts her death while remaining involved in her community. Community, to me, is where someone lives that I am uncomfortable with. The fictional letters create the "uncomfortable" person as part of each character. The modulation of the uncomfortable actions become facets of each person, preserving the "whole" of the person as loving person with demons not seen by others. The curse of secrecy, hiding the "wounded" parts leading to community and personal diminishment. This love of secrecy is the basis of the innate mistrust of most people to Scorpios. The Scorpio demands loyalty but needs his chamber(cave) private, precluding open communication without advance contemplation and strategic analysis, Iago is a classic example of a Scorpio knowingly headed into destructive course aware that he will be destroyed as well.
The incorporation of the Quaker blend of high abstract intellect welded to a belief based on an emotional/spiritual experience (The Gathered Meeting) adds the necessary "vertical plot" necessary for living characters facing life each day.
Many thanks to B. Lloyd for writing such a clear loving book.

I can't stop reading this book! I'm not an actor or a theatre teacher, but I love going to the theatre and try to imagine all the work that goes into creating the characters that we see up on stage. There is so much art and craft to acting and this book helps you to understand it -- and understand the struggles and the growth in each actor, teacher, and director. It's written in a letters between people format which makes it real and lively. This is a book for everyone! Those who haven't read The Actor's Way have a huge treat in store for you!!

Acting and teaching acting is revealed in an unusual form: fictional letters between a struggling New York City actor and his Quaker grade-school acting teacher. In adopting the letter format, the pitfalls of an actor's life and the realities of success are more easily captured. It's rare to see such a blending of fiction and fact, but The Actor's Way: A Journey Of Self-Discovery In Letters provides an excellent, realistic survey in a form students can more easily digest.

The charactor of Andy was genuine, and masterfully revealed in his correspondence with Alice. The relationship that was driven by their link to the theater was so much more than just theater discussion (which I have no experience in, but learned quite a bit)- it got to the core of why and how one chooses a direction in ones life. A book that should be on the reading list of every college student - not just those majoring in the arts! Ultimately The Actor's Way is about authenticty in ones pursuits in life. Want to know where Andy is now in his life. Next book due out???

if you are looking at a way to make the ordinary special, looking at the images contained in Atget definitely intrigues your imagination. details and compostion place the viewer in the scene, an active particpant.

Eugene Atget is known to everyone, perhaps not by name in all instances, but at least by the images of Paris and environs that grace all manner of books, essays, brochures, museums, art collections, and postcards throughout the world. At the time of his death in 1927 his enormous output of images was archived and has subsequently been studied, purchased and shared with exhibitions too numerous to mention. Yet in this fine book the essence of Atget the observer is appreciated as well as any publication of the many about the pioneering photographer, a man who served as an important bridge from studio formality of the art to entering the human realm of images of people on the streets of Paris and the surrounding areas.

Each of the 100 tritone and 5 duotone photographs in this elegant volume is accompanied by an insightful comment by the superb writer John Szarkowski who also happens to be the former director of the Department of Photography at the MOMA in New York. Rarely have photographic images been so enhanced by the written word: Szarkowski is in complete synchrony with the vision of Atget. Here are images of simple people of early 20th century Paris, images of streets, still lifes, woods, streams, rivers great and small, each captured with immediacy and yet with timelessness.

For those looking for an affordable introduction of Atget's work for the library, this is certainly the volume of choice. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 06

Now that it is so cheap, don't miss this great book! Excellent prose by Szarkowski and beautiful pictures by a master... hard combination to beat.

This book is another gift from a great writer and observer, an homage to Atget, to photography, to art and to Western civilization. For anyone who pretends to be a photographer or to love Art, it is a joy to share Szarkowski's easy erudition, one or two pages at a time.

Atget showed us the axioms of photography and axioms cannot be explained by analysis. The test of an Atget, Bach, or Cezanne, is that it is impossible to find the source of their revelation and impossible not to find their influence in future artists.

"Good pictures are not explained by words...With exceptional good luck criticism might with words construct meanings that are different from but consonant with the meanings of pictures. Such constructs of words might possibly guide us toward the neighborhoods where pictorial meanings live.", he says in this book. (Please, if you are an art historian or critic, take this pledge!)

Thus Szarkowski tours the photographs he has selected and writes a thought or two somehow connected to each one - sometimes a revelation, often a question. Each page of writing stands alone and will engage the reader in a conversation with the author and the photographer. Many times Szarkowski puts us somewhere behind the camera a hundred years ago, or on a bridge in Paris 600 years ago. He really brings Atget to life by putting us in his time and place.

There are plenty of revealing facts stashed throughout the writing. Szarkowski talks of the influence of Atget on Weston, Walker Evans, Winogrand, and others and leaves us to recognize the Atget in Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and ourselves. He mentions just the relevant technical and biographical details.

He shows examples of how Atget handled Time,the essence of photography. As he wrote in "Photography Until Now" about Atget, "Perhaps from the practice of looking attentively and repeatedly at the same thing from different vantage points and in different lights he came to see that ...one tree, or one reflecting pool, was never twice the same, and would therefore last as a subject as long as one's concentrated attention. With this realization he became, surely not intentionally, a modern artist."

The reflecting pools and trees are in this book along with the more familiar Parisian architecture. Different views of the same subjects are also in other books such as Berenice Abbott's "The World Of Atget". Szarkowski thus, enriches the literature on Atget, giving meaning to many of the published mindless catalogs of his photographs.

Szarkowski shows another reason Atget is a modern artist. His work is meticulously constructed in the same cultural elements as the works of his more famous contemporary French painters and sculptures. There are no accidents and no mistakes in his work. The result is a richness that reveals something new every time we look at it.

The same is true of this book by Szarkowsi. I've read it three times. It is a masterpiece, "...seductively and deceptively simple, wholly poised, reticent, dense with experience, mysterious and true." To use the words Szarkowski wrote of Atget in Looking At Photographs.

Again, John Szarkowski takes us by the hand and leads us into the photographs of Eugene Atget, as through the magic of a looking glass. In these writings, on a selection of photographs from the first quarter of the 20th century, in his historically aware and individual way, Szarkowski instructs on how to read a photograph by doing so himself. We not only see into the environs of Paris through the eyes of the eclectic, determined and tender Atget, but also through the eyes and the keen, attentive mind of Szarkowski, who writes as though he lives inside these pictures, and tends them, and the photographer, with great devotion.

This edition is set up by the previous 4 volume study, The Work of Atget, by Maria Morris Hambourg and John Szarkowski, Museum of Modern Art, 1985. But this new book comes from a persistent, deep seam miner, one who knows that what it is about these photographs is so fertile, they can be studied throughout one's life, and still give more.

How rich is the mind that can bring another mind to light? Would it be bearable if everything in life could be keyed into focus, for us too busy and bothered to pay attention, by a poet as revelatory as Szarkowski? When considering entree des jardins, 1921-22, he says, "except occasionally, as (for example) during revolutions, the French have managed very well to sublimate the periodic human tendency to behave violently toward one's fellow human men, and have directed these impulses toward their trees", you cannot help but love the gardener who built the gate here, the photographer for seeing it, and Szarkowski, for bringing it to our attention in this way. He tells you what is on the menu, who lived in the house, how the hotel got its name, who built it, what may have motivated them to sculpt a Dionysus over a doorway, what member of the court of Louis the XIV was cast to live where, what other photographer may have attempted to photograph the same scene, and sometimes, what led Atget there.

The book is a beautiful masterpiece, and an accomplishment worthy of a life spent looking deeply. If you love (really looking at) photographs, you should consider your shelves incomplete without it.

While from a literary perspective, this is no masterpiece, it nonetheless captures a unique portrait of early twentieth-century Italian immigrant life. My great-grandfather, Nicolo, worked with tile in Philadelphia around the same time of the setting in this book. Many of the stories I've heard growing up make more sense now having read di Donato's novel.

The writing is stilted at times (di Donato's attempt to make the English sound Italian), and he allows his characters to go on angst-ridden rants for far too long. But there are numerous gems in this piece. I wholeheartedly recommend it -- to Italian-Americans to learn a little more about their heritage and to all others to catch a glimpse of early Italian immigrant life in America.

VERY GOOD BOOK, JUST DIDNT LIKE THE ACTUAL WORDING OF THE BOOK ITSELF WAS A LITTLE WEIRD FOR ITS TYPE OF PLOT, ANY WAYS VERY GOOD BOOK ABOUT THE TIMES.

This is one of my favorite books. It's a thought-provoking and lyrical portrayal of working class issues in America. Di Donato's prose style is wonderful. This book should be much more widely read than it is.

I had the privilege of spending an afternoon at the Long Island home of Pietro Di Donato many, many years ago when a friend of mine, John Liscio,took me to visit. Mr. Di Donato's father, I was told, died when he fell into a vat of cement back in the days when there were no labor laws to protect workers. The book was shaped from this incidence. Powerful book, and an even more powerful man. Both left an indelible impression.

This is the finest book I have ever read about Immigrants. As an Italian American it is especially rewarding. If made into a real film (not like the cheesy 1949 version)it could be a masterpiece -- it could be to Scorsese what Schindler's list is to Spielberg.

One note -- wait to read Fred Gardaphe's introduction until after you read the novel as he gives away a lot of the story.

I was touched by The Doorman. A tale in which the doorman, a Cuban exile, tries to enlighten the eccentric tenants of a Manhattan high-rise. Though Juan has reached freedom in America he has not gained acceptance and has also left behind the friendship of those he shared his suffering with. The tenants, lost in their mostly hilarious excesses are completely blind to Juan's efforts and their own cruelty. Juan ultimately interacts with the tenant's strange pets with interesting results. I keep picking the book up to read some favorite pages I have marked and consider it a book to read again.

This is a very unique novel, with talking animals and the like. It shows that Reinaldo has an imagination that is completly infinate. Great read.I love Reinaldo

merchandise was in good condition. the shipment was fast.

this is book thet i will read agan.agan, agen. Just great. Please, read this book.

I love every one of Arenas' works, but this one might be my favorite if only for its comedy, absurdity and depth-- all wielded with perfect balance and execution. A great and often overlooked work by a seriously overlooked writer.

Well, they didn't, but it's a classic anyway.

This is a terrific book for anyone who wants to learn how great projects are visualized, actualized, and pressed through extremely challenging environmental circumstances. It's a source of inspiration for the dreamers and the practical alike.

If you want to read about architecture and engineering, you get only a small dose here. It's more about the capitalization, visioning and building. But that story is magnetic and wonderful.

Only thing they left out: that it was to this (then half-empty) building that Annhaeuser-Busch delivered the "first" case of legal beer to Al Smith at the end of Prohibition. Smith, the "wet" and the eternal optimist, exemplifies what this building was conceived to be: a vibrant and living testimony to the human spirit.

So, it stands to reason that it survives now as New York's essential symbol.

From the outset, the Empire State Building seemed to have had everything going against it. Although conceived during the 1920s boom years, most of the construction went on during the earliest years of the Depression, thereby putting the idea of high occupancy in the severest doubt. Its location wasn't ideal either. It was three miles north of the Wall Street district and a mile south of the center of the midtown business center. And it was ten blocks south of Grand Central Station and three avenues east of old Pennsylvania Station. The idea of mooring dirigibles was quickly scrapped after failed attempts. And sure enough, although the Empire State Building did get built, the tenants did not come. King Kong did, but he didn't pay rent.

John Tauranac describes all this and more in his exhaustive book, THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: THE MAKING OF A LANDMARK. Written in an engaging style, Tauranac's book is as elegant and interesting as the subject itself, while his wit is as colorful as the characters surrounding the Empire State Building's creation. The book covers the idea for the building, Raskob's and Smith's supervision, the monumental task of the construction workers, and, most importantly, the survival of the building to become THE emblem of America's cultural and economic reach while become THE identifying symbol of New York City. The generous amount of photographs add to the understanding and enjoyment of the book. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent work that details the history of the Empire State Building. I was a bit surprised to find how much the author managed to pack into my paperback. Everything from skyscraper height restrictions to land leases and modern restructuring of ownership for tax purposes (and all the "interesting" stuff in between). If you buy this book and you're not from New York, do yourself a favor and get a map of the area. So you can follow along in the early chapters.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in not only the Empire State Building, but in New York City history of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Who would think that a building completed in 1931 at 1250 feet high would still be the tallest building in NYC in 2007 (of course, we can't forget the tragic loss of the taller WTC Towers). This book covers the quick construction of the ESB, but also covers the politics and history behind the building's location (the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel used to be at the corner of 5th Ave and 34th Street) and the people involved. This is an interesting book about an exciting time where anything seemed possible in one of the world's greatest cities.

I bought this book shortly after a trip to NYC in 2000, and found it to be an excellent history of one of the Big Apple's architectural jewels, the Empire State Building. It is full of intrigue, history, great anecdotes and one-of-a-kind photographs. If you're a visitor to Manhattan or a local resident, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

This is an outstanding collection from a legend of the image Lee Friedlander, a massive, massive book that's quite affordable.
There is art, street imagery, nostaglia, a gusher of photos of sheer beauty from a glance that Friedlanders eye is drawn to.
Beginners, collectors or professionals will find this tomb a timeless collection that cannot be ignored.
Look into photographers William Eggleston, Helen Levitt, Saul Leiter, Robert Adams and Garry Winogrand just to mention a few for more visual classics.
Saul Leiter's new book is quite unique relative to style, really a beauty.

I had never heard of Mr. Friedlander when I saw his exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. There is no way to describe his work in words; you just must experience it. Beyond his keen eye for black and white photography, he has a sly sense of humor that permeates his works. Many of these would be suitable for framing and placed in places where you might not normally hang a photo. This book is a great coffee-table book to be savored and enjoyed. Throw some pillows on the floor and flop down with this huge book and turn the pages slowly.

Ok, sorry to say but once you have this big bad boy what more do you need really? The section at the back about the development of Lee's printing over the years is especially interesting for photographers who are about to make a book. It's yellow which goes well with most coffee tables...Frankly they could have trimmed 20 percent of the photos but in this day and age more is more so what the heck...Totally worth it.

by its scope, this book, like the photographer who's work it represents, is unique. not just the amount of photos, but the richness of them, their cool intelligence. it is a major volume, by one of the most influential non-color artists of our time. many people either hate or love friedlander's work, and i love it. if you do, just looking at this book a few times will be a great joy. if you're lucky (and rich) enough to buy or own it - what a treat.

Lee Friedlander is one of the most important photographers within the history of the medium. His uncanny sense of irony merges with a refreshing use of formal design, producing provocative visual metaphors. His use of frames within frames comments on the nature of photography itself. It is hard to look at the american landscape the same after viewing his work, and that is a good thing! If you can afford another Friedlander book besides this one, i highly recommend "Like a One-Eyed Cat"!

This is a nice book an the subject. Nice large plates, a must for any good art book. That's it--if you like paintings from this genre buy it.

I saw the collection that the Met had last year of this artwork and it was just amazing. It was provocative and raw, and just incredible. I can't wait for the paperback to come out of this so that I can afford it.

Finally an excellent review of what the first World War did to German culture and psyche. This book lays it all out. Hitler was a logical consequence. Unfortunately the Western world did not pay enough attention to these portentious signs. The book has beautiful color reproductions, great detailed commentary on each artist featured and enaough historical commentary to make it all plausible.

This is the catalogue for a beautiful exhibition held at the Met last year. The paintings reproduced here are among the best examples of the New Objectivity, a movement that was able to depict the atmosphere, the soul, the world of the Weimar Republic, that brief time span when pre-war Germany enjoyed freedom in the arts and in the minds. These gripping paintings show how ultimately doomed that world was and how the artists were the first to sense the tragic developments that were to succeed it. The front cover, a detail of one of Christian Schad's best known paintings, is a perfect illustration of a society that seems to have enjoyed life knowing that death would come too soon, with the end of that joyful and poetic decadence that was the Berlin of the 1920's.

Twice viewed the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum here in New York. German art in the 20s is raw, obscene and decadent. A raucus reflection on hard times there. They had just suffered WW1, in the midst of fascism, insane inflation, etc.
Highlight: Otto Dix is a wild artist, forever a favorite now. Also a DaDa artist.
I am a frequent art museum visitor. Therefore, in my opinion, this catalogue did the show great justice which is not aways the case.

Cool Book, Beautiful pictures. Lots Of Cars I have not seen before, Some I have. Worth The Price.

Great book, well done. It answered some questions i had.
Great job. Transaction was great.
Larry Sherrill

Very nice book loads of pix and info. Bought as gift. Guys who are into old GMC iron will be ingrossed for hours!

This book is an important, stylish look at a halcyon time in U.S. automotive history, when dreams became real and art and style were as significant as horsepower and torque. If you're an afficianado of the big cruisers Detroit cranked out in the late fifties and early sixties, this book shows you the wildest styles possible from the designers and how they were translated into what you drove into your driveway. It's a well put together compilation, and the book itself is heavy and durable. Any car collector or petroliana devotee will love it!

The General Motors company hit upon showcasing their new cars every year in a presentation that included automobiles from each of their various divisions (Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet, GMC), as well as experimental or 'Dream' cars created to test public reaction to new ideas in automotive engineering and design. "GM's Motorama: The Glamorous Show Cars Of A Cultural Phenomenon" by David W. Temple (a freelance automotive photojournalist specializing in vintage cars) is a profusely illustrated history of these events and those 'Dream Cars' of the 1950s. Featuring both color and black/white historical photographs, the text is informed and informative. The result is a masterpiece of automotive history and an enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library American Automobile History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

This item is out of print, and I was thrilled to find one in good shape. Many thanks.

This book features 61 traditional songs, primarily English and American folk and nursery songs. The illustrations, however, are much more diverse--from Japanese scrolls to a picture of a jeweled box shaped like a frog.

Each song has a brief introduction describing its origins or other important facts, and each image also has a description, often including historical tidbits.

The bountiful images (at least one per page, often more) make it a good book for young children to look at while singing or playing at the piano.

This looks like a book for children, and it is. But even more important, it is a book for babies! My two year old baby boy already knew some of the songs going into the book. Let me tell you that at two and two months he now requests "Bringing in the Sheaves." and "Down by the Riverside."
Every night we take that book to bed and we sing and sing until we fall asleep. This is of course after reading several other board books first. I reccommend this book as a keepsake for life!

This is a lovely book of full-color spreads & clear, easytoread music to accompany anyone singing these lively, familiarsongs. 61 classic childhood songs are decorated with some of the magnificent treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Songs for work, play, nursery, nonsense rhymes, ballads & lullabies matched to paintings, photographs, bedspreads, sculptures & collages spanning 3000 years from around the world...

Family members have been treasuring this book for almost 20 years, and I have given many copies as gifts. A great collection of beautiful melodies, good musical arrangements, and gorgeous visually. Old favorites, easy to sing, the ones everyone knows and enjoys - the whole family will sing along.