Robert Griffith Books

I have the hardcover edition. I collect Robert Crumb's works and this is a favorite of everyone looking at my collection. It you are an art student this along with his Gotta Have'Em Portraits of Women by R.Crumb is good resource material. I'd give The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book in (hardcover) ten stars if I could. I have not had the opportunity to look at the soft cover version but I would bet it is well done.

I just picked up the hardcover edition yesterday at the bargain section of my local bookstore. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It's in chronological order of R. Crumb's work broken into chapters. Each chapter starts with a write up by him telling about what was going on in his life at that time, and how some of the drawings came to be. I find him to be a fascinating artist. He bares his soul in his work, not really caring how he appears or what people think.

This book is the ultimate Crumb. You won't be disappointed if you love his work.

Just about every huge page (this book is big!) is filled with inspired color drawings from the legendary underground artist. Crumb gets very personal in this book, it's incredibly honest and, at times, deep. He takes the reader on a nostalgic journey through his childhood, life, and career. It's about growing up, finding the artist within, and adjusting to the insanity of the world. Or, you can simply read it for the edgy, often sexual comics. Either way, this is a big heavy book that is hard to pick up, but harder to put down.

A generation ago, American poets such as Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and Anne Sexton gave birth to a genre that's come to be known as "confessional poetry." Their verse revealed intimate facts about their lives that simply weren't spoken of in polite company: fears, phobias, sexual hang-ups, pettiness, depression, suicidal tendencies. Some of their work wound up being rather pathetic, more confessional than poetic. But when it was good, it invited readers to face their own demons.

Robert Crumb, whom the art critic Robert Hughes has called the "Breughel of the 20th century," is a confessional artist whose chosen genre is comics. For 50-odd years (with the emphasis on "odd"!), R. Crumb has explored his many identities and personae in thousands of sketches, drawings, and paintings. The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book is actually an autobiography put together from a handful of the work Crumb has produced over the years. It's interspersed with essays by Crumb on his childhood, school days, the hippie scene in San Francisco, his marriages, his "personal obsession with big women," his spiritual yearnings, and his love of old music. Taken together, it's a fascinating portrait of a man who's dared to explore some of his deepest and darkest places, and to do so (at least sometimes) publicly.

Crumb believes that the pivotal moment in his personal and artistic life was the period in the mid-60s to the early 70s when he dropped acid on a regular basis. Although he sometimes worries that he might've fried his brain, he also thinks that the LSD trips liberated his psyche and helped him break through to new and deeper levels of creativity. The LSD was, he tells us, his "road to Damascus."

Perhaps. It's true that Crumb's work has changed over the years--it's become more brutally honest, more introspective, darker and at the same time funnier. Perhaps the LSD had something to do with it (although, personally, I quite dislike some of the work that comes from that period, finding it rather flat and silly). But I suspect that the single greatest influence on Crumb was his childhood and his family, especially his brother Charlie, who seems to have been just as much a genius as Robert. Crumb the man really is the child of Crumb the boy. The LSD may've helped Crumb get in touch with the raw energy generated from those days.

Crumb has become notorious for the sexuality of some of his comics, and has taken his share of political correct knocks. But The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book makes clear that the bottom line of much of his art is his existential need to explore and expose the shallowness and absurdity of much of modern life. Above all, as he tells us (p. 247), he wants to tell the truth, not only about himself but about us as well. Whether it's in the pages of "Zap" or "Weirdo" comics, or in panels featuring Shuman the Human or Mr. Natural, Crumb continuously questions racial, sexual, cultural, and artistic conventions, pushing the envelope as far as it can go and frequently causing readers discomfort. There's also a longing on Crumb's part for deep meaning in a universe that appears crazy. This most often reveals itself as nostalgia for bygone days (his love of "old" music, for example), but also more explicitly as a yearning for a god that he can no longer fully believe in and frequently mocks.

Reading R. Crumb is an intense experience. Like all good art, his stuff can make one laugh with joy or send shivers down the spine. The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book is a good place to start if you're just discovering Crumb, and an equally good collection to help long-time admirers get some idea of the big picture of Crumb's work and to better appreciate its depth. It's also a good catalyst for getting in touch with one's own multiple identities.

As a teacher in a playschool I can confirm that my children love these wonderful short stories. The vocabulary used is excellent for children, especially the under 5's. The stories are amusing even when you've read them over and over again. The illustrations are really well done and compliment the stories superbly. They cannot be compared to Thomas the Tank Engine, as so many people will try to do. The Adventures of Clive is in a class of it's own, and the author clearly has a great understanding of the way the underground railway system works. I hope we will see more from Robert Griffiths in the future.

After reading the authors previous book (mind the doors), i had to get my hands on a copy of this. I found this book very easy going and very funny. Its to good for my young daughter that gets me and the wife to read it for her just before bed. The book has some very nice pictures of London Underground "Tube trains" that are expertly drawn, its nice to see a worker on the transport system take a pride in his job and write about it, just keep up the excellent work Mr Griffiths and give us some more, Megan (my daughter) is pestering me for more of clives adventures.

I have reviewed this book already but it didn't appear here, so fingers crossed the second time.

An excellent easy read book for youngsters with easy to read script and good quality pictures, will interest the child in us Adults too.

Maybe we have a rival to Budgie the Helicopter and others this a first for the London Underground.

This childrens book is ideal for those who like trains. Clive The Little-Red Tube train finds adventure on the London Underground. There are great stories and illustrations throughout the 45 pages.

Provided much information about the Knox Mine. It was a big help with my research paper.

This was very good for my project

I saw this thing happen, and have amazed many people with the story of the Knox Mine Cave In. Having grown up in the Wilkes Barre area,and now living outside of that region,it's great to have a chronological sequence of the events that led to the demise of the deep anthracite mining industry. The book also captures the economic and political realities of the region in times prior to and after the mine disaster. Sheds a lot of light on "powerful" people. Definitely not a witch hunt - factual - lets the reader decide what caused the end of the deep coal mining in the Wyoming Valley

It's about time this book is written. I remember that day very clearly. I was only 11 years old and did not know if my father was alive or dead. Thank God he survived, he was one of the last survivors....John Gadomski and his half brother George Mazur.

I used this book in high school too and am now an education publishing designer/illustrator. I just hunted it down because we cuts costs and rarely make books like this now - with good page quality and so many charming 4-color illustrations to enhance the learning experience. Those illus. stuck with me over the years.

In 1982 as a freshman in High School, I was in Spanish 101 and we used this book. Eventhough I am a hispanic being born here, believe it or not there are a lot of us who have challenges with our parents language. I remember having attrocious grammer and was frequently guilty as many of us are, of speaking in "spanglish." For those of you who aren't latino, "spanglish" is regarded by Latin Americans to be the spanish equivalent of ebonics. I was a US born hispanic who was barely literate in Spanish. Sad, yes I agree, and sadly it's very common now.

I highly recommend this book. It helped correct many of my language weaknesses and put me on a solid path the getting very proficient in Spanish. And as for the true first timers who were in my class at the time, I was very surprised at how quickly everyone seemed to learn the language.

Don't think this book or any other will be enough to make you fluent - none will do that. If you really want to learn this language or any other language for that matter, take a book like this and pair it with good software like Berlitz or Rossetta Stone. Both are excellent and will really drill you but in a very fun and friendly way. Try to watch a film in that language. I like picking comedy's because they are funny and I remember more detail. It would probably be a good idea try to take a language class or two at a community college. Learning a new language can be very difficult, but if done in stages patiently, you will be surprised at how easy it really is. One day it will just make sense.

I'm in culinary school, and I am fascinated by Italian Cuisine but don't know a lick of Italian. The path I'm taking to learn Italian is exactly what I proposed above. I have new text book, I have ordered Berlitz and once done with at least levels one and two of the software, I'm going to take a class. Right about the time that the class is completed, I'm going to travel to Italy to enroll ia a monthlong culinary internship. The trip to Italy kills two birds with one stone. I think the excitement of going there, coupled with new found language skills, will make my culinary training experience even greater.

The book along with the other "On our Own" are very well written books that answer all the question you might have.

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed this book from cover to cover. Im actually selling it and if it were not due to finances I would keep it. I found the authors' to be fair and accurate. I simply believe this is one of the best styles of writing of history that Ive ever had the pleasure of reading. I believe all political views and belief's have been left at the editing table and only the facts presented unlike other history books Ive come across.

It is an advance basic text for thoracic surgons who wants to have a guide and a source of information for the everyday profesional task.

I AM GOING TO START MY TRAINING IN THORACIC SURGERY AND I WANT TO KNOW WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO PRINT THE NEW EDITHION OF THORACIC SURGERY (PERSON). THANK YOU.

First, this book and Dr. Shield's "General Thoracic Surgery" are two bibles in this field.
Second, I found mis-typing on page 436.
Not Narake and colleague(1978), but Naruke.

"Fred and Gwen" about whom this book is written, were good friends of mine and my famliy. They were two people I know who were in love and lived a life of faitfulness,care and comcern for each other. This book "Fresh Water From Old Wells" is about what real love between to people does to enhance, engross, influence, and cemet the love of two wonderful people. Who were joined together, by God, so much in love that, nothing or nobody could put them asunder, not even death. Love made the difference for them until death they did part. This book is must reading for all, but even more so, for those married people who need just a little more strength to hold on and hold out until death do they part.

Rev. Hrold C. Huggins, Retire
Minister African Methodist Episcopal Church.

This book is not your typical history book. It is the personal stories of 9 people (7 men and 2 women) who fought for a free Ireland from the Easter Rising of 1916 through to the Civil War of 1922-23. This is an amazing read, that tells of the often painful decisions these Irish veterans made on behalf of the country they loved.

I used this book and found it to be helpful with learning the various muscles for my anatomy and physiology class in college. Tortora is very helpful in describing the location of muscles and nerve innervation. I also used the following that is on amazon:
Anatomy and Physiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations (Volume 1, and Volume 2) by Patrick Leonardi
The last two books were extremely helpful in helping me prepare for the type of questions encountered on my exams. My advice is to get both books