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ECCO/ Harper Collins Oct 30, 2007 ' THE PLEASURES OF THE DAMNED: POEMS , 1951-1993 CHARLES BUKOWSKI............America's most influencial and imitated poet...the author whose books are most stolen from bookstores and libraries inching ahead of Jack Kerouac. To his fans Bukowski was and remains the quintessential counterculture icon. The wildman of literature,a stubborn outsider to the poetry world who has struck a chord with millions of readers. Edited by John Martin, the legendary publisher of Black Sparrow Press and close friend, The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best works from Bukowski's long poetic career including some never before published poems. Bukowski talent was endless and brilliant and this volume is a treasure trove of of essential reading and those just discovering this unique and legendary American poet.
Hardcover $ 29.95 / 556 pages
see CURRENT REVIEWS for
'self portrait che guevara' publisher... www.oceanbooks.com.au
John Brown Abolitionist David S. Reynolds.. Knopf
Buster Keaton Tempest in a Flat Hat .. Edward McPherson/ Newmarket Press
Until I Find You John Irving Random House
Nation of Rebels Heath and Potter Harper Business
well worth the time effort and expense these books will be satisfying summer reading,
and remember our local book dealers, OBLONG in Rhinebeck, and Merritt in Red Hook.
THE BRADBURY CHRONICLES: THE LIFE OF RAY BRADBURY by SAM WELLER / WILLIAM MORROW BOOKS.
Bradbury is an American literary icon, an architect of wonders whose life has been as fascinating, momentous and inspiring as his fiction. Bradbury is a writer who has helped define America's history. If you love Bradbury, you'll love this biography. Some of Bradbury's books are;
Fahrenheit 451
The Illustrated Man
The Martian Chronicles
Dandelion Wine
Dylan Visions, Portraits, and Back Pages / DK Publishing Foreword by BONO A spectacular 287 page volume filled with otherwise unpublished photos and stories about the great Dylan....A MUST READ FOR ALL ROCK AND ROLL ENTHUSIASTS
Melville His World and Work Andrew Delbanco published by Knopf Endlessly informative of a writer all but forgotten and now seen as central in understanding the American character. A brilliant narrative. Three cheers for Delbanco
Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness / Joshua Shenk Houghton Mifflin publisher. Shenk establishes that even as a young man , Lincoln had all the symptoms of what is now defined as mental illness. He also shows us that Lincoln had all the qualities denoting mental health. This apparant paradox is explained in Shenk's masterly written ' mental biography of our greatest President.'
Publication of the YEAR; THE STANLEY KUBRICK ARCHIVES by Alison Castle TASCHEN PUBLICATIONS..a phenomenal volume covering all the works of the great Stanley Kubrick in a coffee table volume complete with a 70mm film strip of 2001 Space Odessey from Kubrick's own print. Available at Strand Books NYC. ( call ahead 212 473-1452) discounts available.
Positively 4th Street by David Hajdu. This book is a so-called biography of Bob Dylan's Greenwich Village days. We will forgive Dylan's hanging out with the awful Pete Seeger as he was only 19 or 20 at the time but his hanging out with the more awful Peter Paul and Mary and Theo Bikel is unforgiveable but we will give the Great Man the benefit of his youth. In those days 1961 and for another 2-3 years people had to put up with the whole middle class folk-scholar slab of fatty white meat, marinated in a musty Old Left ideological ambience- that ambiance drifted around that silly scene just like the smell of tobacco drifts around an OTB parlor. It is no wonder Dylan rejected this bunch and took up the electric guitar it was out of embarassment and certainly not politics. The folk scene was a fraud and the proof was the warbling of The abominable Weavers and their ilk...could Dylan really admire Bikel ?? RIDICULOUS !! Dylan is surely the most cerebral, anarchic, paranoid, funny, punkiest, important and quintessentially American musician to date and as the late Phil Ochs said upon hearing the first playing of ' Lke a Rolling Stone' " How can a human mind think of something like this ??" At any rate the book is a fairly good period piece of the times and the neighborhood around Bleeker and McDougal, 4th Street , Greenwich Ave..8th Street and all the regular suspects.
I, Wabenzi A Souvenir by Rafi Zabor publisher Farrar Straus and Giroux, NY . One third ON THE ROAD one third Remembrance of Things Past and the last third Sufi Mysticism. This is a dense, heady memoir, the first in a four volume set tracking the years Zabor spent getting involved with a spiritual commune in the '70's and caring for his dying parents. Zabors previous book THE BEAR COMES HOME won the PEN/Faulkner Award . I WABENZI is filled with ' spoon benders, Sufi metaphysics, whirling dervishes and moments of transcendence....Zabor sees connections everywhere. In Africa, people who drive Mercedes are called Wabenzi, this tour de force covers everything from his fathers exodus from Nazi- occupied Poland to Zabors childhood in Brooklyn where he was still called Joel, to Sufi teachings. To read Wabenzi is like rafting down a fast flowing river, given his long rolling sentences, cascading descriptions, whirlpool thoughts, rapid dialogue, spangled wit and invisible depth.. THREE MORE VOLUMES ARE IN THE WORKS.
The Terror/ The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France. by David Andress Farrar Straus and Giroux
A visceral account of the guillotining of King Louis XVI in 1793 : ' he was strapped to a tilting plank, which dropped his head in to brace, and the blade... plunged from above'. While the British historian's graphic depiction of numerous executions is a high point of his account of ' The Terror' he explicitly states it was not the most salient point of the revolution. Countering the historiography of the last generation, including Simon Schama, who said, ' violence was the revolution itself,' Andress focuses not just on the killings but on the ' grand political pronouncements , uprisings and insurrections,' from the varying ideologies of the dissident parties which rendered France unstable for more than a decade resulting in social upheaval. The book follows until Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation as emperor in 1804 which brought the revolution full circle creating a strong central government that scorned democracy and popular sovereignty, the revolutions central tenents. This is a guide to an extraordinary period of history .
LINCOLN'S WRATH BY Dahlstrom and Manber / Sourcebooks. Inc It seems to me that anything written about Lincoln reveals another facet of his character. An eternally fascinating man. This book reveals the less than humble, honest and upstanding side to Lincoln in his manipulation of the press during the period of 1861 on through his tenure. In the 'Summer of Rage' 1861, mobs entered newspaper offices, burning papers and throwing the presses out the windows. Army units attacked and imprisoned publishers and their families. Governor's members of Congress mayors and editors were thrown in jail. All those who faced this ' wrath' shared one thing in common: they publicly opposed Lincoln and his policies. How far did the conspiracy against his opponents go.....? Read this book to find out.
THE STUDIO OF MAN RAY Ira Nowinski / publisher Nazraeli Press
www.nazraeli.com visit Nazraeli for a full catalogue of extraordinary books many of which are investment quality to be held in your library . This new Nazrael edition ' The Studio of Man Ray', we enter this remarkable artists private space where he worked and concocted some of the most visionary,insightful, clever, quixotic and dreamy works of the last century. The fact that many of his personal effects have survived a terrible flood is miraculous. The beautiful black and white duotone plates ( 43 in all) are a testament to both Man Ray, Ira Nowinski and Nazraeli Publishing .
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