Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric
Masters of language can turn unassuming words into phrases that are convincing, effective, and memorably beautiful. Lincoln and Churchill had this power: having heard their words once, the reader or...
View ArticleHamlet’s Mill
Ever since the Greeks coined the language we commonly use for scientific description, mythology and science have developed separately. But what came before the Greeks? What if we could prove that all...
View ArticleDecline and Fall of Practically Everybody
So you think you know most of what there is to know about people like Nero and Cleopatra, Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun, Lady Godiva and Miles Standish? You say there’s nothing more to be...
View ArticleCheyenne Madonna
One stormy night in 1826, just north of Galveston Bay, Old Bull, a Cheyenne Indian who had just seen the ocean for the first time, found himself trying to outrace a hurricane. Lifted from his horse,...
View ArticleJamie Is My Heart’s Desire
Alfred Chester’s masterpiece, The Exquisite Corpse, was one of the literary sensations of the 1960s, a surreal, homoerotic phantasmagoria that became a cult classic. It was preceded by this, his only...
View ArticleField and Forest Handy Book
Daniel C. Beard was not only a founder of Boy Scouting in America, but also a prolific and engaging author. His great passion was making boys and girls feel at home in nature, to allow them to...
View ArticleAmerican Girls Handy Book
If Tom Sawyer had been a girl, Aunt Polly would certainly have seen to it that she had a copy of this book — and with a heartfelt blessing. It’s a magical cornucopia of projects, devices, toys, gifts,...
View ArticleAmerican Boy’s Handy Book
First published in 1882, but more relevant than ever, this book is a wealth of projects and games, with practical directions on how to make them. Written by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of...
View ArticleLes Fleurs du Mal
This translation of Baudelaire’s magnum opus – perhaps the most powerful and influential book of verse from the 19th century – won the American Book Award for Translation. And the honor was...
View ArticleWriting the Garden
Winner of a 2012 American Horticultural Society Book Award Gardening, more than most outdoor activities, has always attracted a cult of devotedly literate practitioners; people who like to dig, it...
View ArticleStudy Is Hard Work
This is the best guide ever published on how to acquire and maintain good study skills. It covers everything from developing a vocabulary to improving the quality of written work, and has chapters on...
View ArticleLonely Phone Booth
Remember the days when phone booths stood on every street corner? If you had to make a call, you’d step inside the little booth, lift the phone off the hook, put a coin in the slot, listen for the...
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