Search results for ""Author Norman Franks"

Thirty of the world’s leading architects, including Norman Foster, Thom Mayne, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, talk about the houses they designed for themselves over the past decade. What inspired them, what were the constraints, how did their concepts take shape? Michael Webb explores the creative process and traces the influence of architects’ houses over the past two hundred years, from Jefferson’s Monticello to the creations of Charles and Ray Eames, Toyo Ito and Frank Gehry. Texts, images, sketches and plans are interwoven to illustrate houses that differ widely, in size, material, character and location. There are urban infills, rustic retreats, experiments, and fusions of new and old. They all make a statement, modest or ambitious, and each reflects the personality and tastes of its owner. These architects have accepted the challenge of doing something out of the ordinary, turning constraints to advantage. They give different answers to a crucial question: how can a house enrich lives and its surroundings? Spacious or frugal, refined or rough-edged, daring or reductive, these adventurous dwellings will inspire other architects and everyone who would like to design or commission a house that is one-of-a-kind.

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How have American writers written about jazz, and how has jazz influenced American literature? In Fascinating Rhythm, David Yaffe explores the relationship and interplay between jazz and literature, looking at jazz musicians and the themes literature has garnered from them by appropriating the style, tones, and innovations of jazz, and demonstrating that the poetics of jazz has both been assimilated into, and deeply affected, the development of twentieth-century American literature. Yaffe explores how Jewish novelists such as Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, and Philip Roth engaged issues of racial, ethnic, and American authenticity by way of jazz; how Ralph Ellison's descriptions of Louis Armstrong led to a "neoconservative" movement in contemporary jazz; how poets such as Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, and Frank O'Hara were variously inspired by the music; and how memoirs by Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis both reinforced and redeemed the red light origins of jazz. The book confronts the current jazz discourse and shows how poets and novelists can be placed in it--often with problematic results. Fascinating Rhythm stops to listen for the music, demonstrating how jazz continues to speak for the American writer.

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The Great Builders surveys the careers of forty great architects whose engineering skills were crucial to their success. Sixteen nationalities and seven centuries of architectural innovation make for a survey of spectacular scope and depth: from churches and fortresses to bridges and high-tech skyscrapers, it includes masterpieces from all over the world and covers 700 years of architectural history. Here is Brunelleschi, who built the ‘unbuildable’ dome of Florence Cathedral; Sinan, a Christian engineer who became chief architect to the Ottoman court; Joseph Paxton, scribbling down a design for the Crystal Palace, London, on a piece of blotting paper; and James Bogardus, an early American evangelist of the opportunities offered by cast-iron architecture. Rapid advances in industrial production inspired experiments with new materials and techniques, gradually allowing a whole new architecture to emerge: reinforced concrete, plate glass and steel were central to the creations of Le Corbusier, Auguste Perret and Mies van der Rohe, for instance; and, in the High-Tech architecture of the present day – represented by Norman Foster, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava, among others – computer-aided design has seemingly tested the boundaries of the possible.With 26 illustrations, 19 in colour

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New York in the 1960s was a hotbed for progressive causes of every stripe, including women's liberation, civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War--and the Cuban Revolution. Fighting over Fidel brings this turbulent cultural moment to life by telling the story of the New York intellectuals who championed and opposed Castro's revolution. Setting his narrative against the backdrop of the ideological confrontation of the Cold War and the breakdown of relations between Washington and Havana, Rafael Rojas examines the lives and writings of such figures as Waldo Frank, Carleton Beals, C. Wright Mills, Allen Ginsberg, Susan Sontag, Norman Mailer, Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, and Jose Yglesias. He describes how Castro's Cuba was hotly debated in publications such as the New York Times, Village Voice, Monthly Review, and Dissent, and how Cuban socialism became a rallying cry for groups such as the Beats, the Black Panthers, and the Hispanic Left. Fighting over Fidel shows how intellectuals in New York interpreted and wrote about the Cuban experience, and how the Left's enthusiastic embrace of Castro's revolution ended in bitter disappointment by the close of the explosive decade of the 1960s.

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Thrilling, Wonder, Captain America, America's Best, Marvel, Exciting, Startling: Alex Schomburg produced the most dazzling array of high-quality comic-book covers in the Golden Age of American Comics. Spider-Man, Hulk, and X-Men co-creator Stan Lee said, "Alex Schomburg was to comic books what Norman Rockwell was to The Saturday Evening Post." Golden Age comic books with Schomburg covers are selling for record prices in America's leading auction houses. This book collects, for the first time, a host of tantalizing Schomburg treasures in one volume. Superheroes, jungle girls, robots, wild animals, and space travelers abound in these romantic and nostalgic Pop-Art icons of the bygone WWII era. Alex Schomburg has won every major award for both science fiction and comic book art, from the Hugo Lifetime Achievement Award to the Inkpot, the Doc Smith Lensman Award, and the Frank R. Paul Award. He was inducted posthumously into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame. During WWII, Schomburg turned out a plethora of ornate, flamboyant, and outrageously pro-American comic book covers jammed with detail. Schomburg was Timely-Marvel's definitive 1940s cover artist. Ron Goulart, author of Comic Book Culture, called Schomburg the undisputed champ and Hieronymous Bosch of comics artists. After the war, Schomburg's comics subjects shifted toward adorable pin-up quality jungle girls and sci-fi (often signed "Xela") in the trademark airbrush style that made the artist famous as a book and magazine illustrator. About this book, Harlan Ellison said, "Finally and at last! The magnificent answer to the question, 'What do you buy for the Man Who Has Everything?' No matter what age he may be, this every-page-a-wonder assemblage of Schomburg paintings will thrill, charm and delight any guy on his anniversary, birthday, holiday or need for apology from you. It might please women, too, but for guys, for sure."

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First published in 1975, this collection includes many of the best critical responses to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, and the editor has elected to reissue the book without making any substitutions. As he argues in his new preface, the variety of issues raise in the original papers has been a major part of the book's appeal. He also acknowledges that no modest revision of this book could pretend to respond adequately to the considerable elaboration and evolution of Rawls' theory in the last fifteen years. Political philosophy has been one of the most exciting areas of philosophical activity in the years since A Theory of Justice, and much of that activity has been a response to Rawls' work. In his preface, the editor suggests how some of the insights and criticisms contained in the collection have had a bearing on developments in Rawls' theory and in political philosophy more generally, and that fresh reading of each of them reveals additional important points that have not yet received adequate attention. The contributors are: Benjamin Barber, Norman Daniels, Gerald Dworkin, Ronald Dworkin, Joel Feinberg, Milton Fisk, R.M. Hare, H.L.A. Hart, David Lyons, Frank Michelman, Richard Miller, Thomas Nagel, T.M. Scanlon, and A.K. Sen.

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Few twentieth-century writers on architecture and design have enjoyed the renown of Reyner Banham. Born and trained in England and a U.S. resident starting in 1976, Banham wrote incisively about American and European buildings and culture. Now readers can enjoy a chronological cross-section of essays, polemics, and reviews drawn from more than three decades of Banham's writings. The volume, which includes discussions of Italian Futurism, Adolf Loos, Paul Scheerbart, and the Bauhaus as well as explorations of contemporary architecture by Frank Gehry, James Stirling, and Norman Foster, conveys the full range of Banham's belief in industrial and technological development as the motor of architectural evolution. Banham's interests and passions ranged from architecture and the culture of pop art to urban and industrial design. In brilliant analyses of automobile styling, mobile homes, science fiction films, and the American predilection for gadgets, he anticipated many of the preoccupations of contemporary cultural studies. Los Angeles, the city that Banham commemorated in a book and a film, receives extensive attention in essays on the Santa Monica Pier, the Getty Museum, Forest Lawn cemetery, and the ubiquitous freeway system. Eminently readable, provocative, and entertaining, this book is certain to consolidate Banham's reputation among architects and students of contemporary culture. For those acquainted with his writing, it offers welcome surprises as well as familiar delights. For those encountering Banham for the first time, it comprises the perfect introduction.

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Unbuilt tells the stories of the plans, drawings and proposals that emerged during the 20th century in an unparalleled era of optimism in architecture. Many of these grand projects stayed on the drawing board, some were flights of fancy that couldn't be built, and in other cases test structures or parts of buildings did emerge in the real world. The book features the work of Buckminster Fuller, Geoffrey Bawa, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Archigram, as well as contemporary architects such as Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Will Alsop and Rem Koolhaas. Richly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps, collages and models from all over the world, it covers everything from Buckminster Fuller's plan for a 'Domed city' in Manhattan to Le Corbusier's utopian dream of skyscraper living in central Paris, from a proposed network of motorways ploughing through central London to a crazy-looking scheme for 'rolling pavements' in post-war Berlin. This is an important book, not just for the rich stories of what might have been in our built world, but also to give understanding to the motivations and dreams of architects, sometimes to build a better world, but sometimes to pander to egos. It includes plans that pushed the boundaries – from plug-in cities, moving cities, space cities, domes and floating cities to Maglev, teleportation and rockets. Many ideas were just ahead of their time, and some, thankfully, we were always better without.

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In this invaluable and thought-provoking book, Vladimir Belogolovsky reflects on nearly 20 years of conversations with leading creatives from around the world whose focus is on art, photography, architecture, design, critical theory, and more. His intimate dialogues are with prolific visionaries, the likes of Paul Andreu, Aaron Betsky, Tatiana Bilbao, Christo, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Glenn Murcutt, Renzo Piano, Moshe Safdie, Ric Scofido, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, Michael Sorkin, Stanley Tigerman, Bernard Tschumi, Lin Utzon, Massimo Vignelli, Madelon Vriesendorp, and so many others. He exposes the complexity of their thought processes, while comparing and contrasting them to one another to distill more than 101 ideas. His engaging narrative captures the stories behind every project and every personality while exploring many important questions, including what makes a building architecture? How would a Futurist solve problems vs those whose focus is on nostalgia? The selection of interviews gathers many answers and intentions, but inevitably, also many more questions. Imagine Buildings Floating Like Clouds represents a diverse group of multitalented, creative people who work in disparate places culturally and climatically and came of age in very different times—from the revolutionary 1960s to our own time, when the future, for many, is being more feared than desired.

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A Victorian club house in a castle in the West End of London, complete with battlements and turrets. A design for the post-war reconstruction of the capital in 1945. A fantasy landscape featuring Le Corbusier’s Capriccio of Notre-Dame du Haut in ruins.This is a treasury of architectural drawing from the 16th century to the present day. Exploring both how and why architects draw, it offers a rich visual history from Palladio, Inigo Jones and Augustus Pugin to Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid, via Sir Christopher Wren, George Gilbert Scott and Erno Goldfinger, and everything else in between.From back-of-envelope concept sketches to painstaking pen-and-ink perspectives, exploded axonometrics and born-digital drawings, this book celebrates the full gamut of architectural representation. With over 200 lush, full-colour reproductions, this is a window into the soul of architectural drawing over the past five hundred years. Includes newly digitised, never-seen-before material from the RIBA Collections, one of the largest architectural archives in the world. Explores rare drawings and designs from John Nash, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright and many more. Insightful commentary alongside each drawing ensures that each image is as accessible and engaging as possible. Wide-ranging in scope, this book will both inspire and inform.

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On Courage is a collection of twenty-eight moving and inspirational stories of valour displayed by recipients of the Victoria Cross and George Cross. *£2.70 of the publisher's RRP of all copies of this book sold in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland will be donated to Combat Stress.*WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM:Alexander Armstrong, Baroness Hale, Bear Grylls, Bill Beaumont, Bobby Charlton, Katherine Grainger, Kelly Holmes, Derek Jacobi, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Bruno, Geoffrey Palmer, Jeremy Irons, Joanna Kavenna, Joanna Lumley, John Simpson, Joseph Calleja, Julian Fellowes, Kate Adie, Ken Dodd, Margaret MacMillan, Mark Pougatch, Mary Berry, Michael Whitehall and Jack Whitehall, Miranda Hart, Richard Chartres, Tom Ward, Will Greenwood, and Willie Carson.From RAF flight engineer Norman Jackson, who climbed out onto the wing of a Lancaster bomber in flight to put out a fire, using a twisted parachute as a rope, on the night his first child was born; children's writer turned Assistant Section Officer Noor Inayat-Khan, who was the first female operator to infiltrate occupied France and refused to abandon what had become the most dangerous post in the country; to Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer Tom Crean, who struck out alone for a supply depot during Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole to save the life of his ailing companion, these courageous men and women are an inspiration to us all. Written by leading historians and authors Tom Bromley, Saul David, Paul Garlington, James Holland and Dr Spencer Jones, these incredible accounts tell of the recipients' determination and selfless actions in times of war. Each story is introduced by a public figure, including Mary Berry, Bear Grylls, Sir Bobby Charlton, Joanna Lumley, Eddie Redmayne and the late Sir Ken Dodd.

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Discover, or return to, the world's greatest heroic fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta in this landmark art collection entitled, Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta. The New York Times said, "Frazetta helped define fantasy heroes like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars with signature images of strikingly fierce, hard-bodied heroes and bosomy, callipygian damsels" Frazetta took the sex and violence of the pulp fiction of his youth and added even more action, fantasy and potency, but rendered with a panache seldom seen outside of major works of Fine Art. Despite his fantastic subject matter, the quality of Frazetta’s work has not only drawn comparisons to the most brilliant of illustrators, Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth but, even to the most brilliant of fine artists including Rembrandt and Michelangelo and, major Frazetta works sell for millions of dollars, breaking numerous records. This innovator’s work has not only inspired generations of artists, but also movies and directors including the Conan films, John Carter of Mars, the sensationally successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, Robert Rodriguez’ films including From Dusk Till Dawn, Ralph Bakshi films, the epic, award-winning Game of Thrones series, Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, Disney’s animated Tarzan films, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and George Lucas’ Star Wars series. The Forbes magazine article Schwarzenegger's Sargent led with the line, "Which artist helped make Arnold governor? Frank Frazetta, the Rembrandt of barbarians." J. David Spurlock started crafting this book by reviving the original million-selling 1970s mass market art book, Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta. But, he expanded and revised to include twice as many images and, presents them at a much larger coffee-table book size of 10.5 x 14.625”! The collection is brimming with both classic and previously unpublished works of the subjects Frazetta is best remembered for including barbarians, beasts, and buxom beauties. Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin said, “Though he bears only a passing resemblance to the Cimmerian as Robert E. Howard described him, Frazetta’s covers of the Conan paperback collections became the definitive picture of the character… still is.” Schwarzenegger said, “I have not been intimidated that often in my life. But when I looked at Frazetta’s paintings, I tell you, it was intimidating.” Game of Thrones, Conan and Aquaman film star Jason Momoa said, “I am a huge Frank Frazetta fan. Both of my parents are painters, so I'd known Frazetta's paintings, that's what I wanted to bring to life.” See the revolutionary art that helped inspire Schwarzenegger, Momoa, the Lord of the Rings films and Game of Thrones: FRAZETTA!

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Screenwriters are storytellers and dream builders. They forge new worlds and beings, bringing them to life through storylines and idiosyncratic details. Yet up until now, no one has told the story of these creative and indispensable artists. The Writers is the only comprehensive qualitative analysis of the history of writers and writing in the film, television, and streaming media industries in America. Featuring in-depth interviews with over fifty writers—including Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, and Frank Pierson—The Writers delivers a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at the role and rights of writers in Hollywood and New York over the past century. Granted unprecedented access to the archives of the Writers Guild Foundation, Miranda J. Banks also mines over 100 never-before-published oral histories with legends such as Nora Ephron and Ring Lardner Jr., whose insight and humor provide a window onto the enduring priorities, policies, and practices of the Writers Guild.With an ear for the language of storytellers, Banks deftly analyzes watershed moments in the industry: the advent of sound, World War II, the blacklist, ascension of television, the American New Wave, the rise and fall of VHS and DVD, and the boom of streaming media. The Writers spans historical and contemporary moments, and draws upon American cultural history, film and television scholarship and the passionate politics of labor and management. Published on the sixtieth anniversary of the formation of the Writers Guild of America, this book tells the story of the triumphs and struggles of these vociferous and contentious hero-makers.

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Museum architecture has blossomed over the past few decades. Art museums lead the way in terms of new buildings by superstar architects such as Frank Gehry, Herzog and de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, and Renzo Piano, among many more. Those facilities have received public and professional recognition through media attention and design awards. But other museum typologies exist, one such being for buildings that showcase military history and artifacts. All too often, one thinks of these as unsophisticated in their design and amateurish or antiquated in their exhibitions. Nowadays, nothingcan be further from the truth. This volume examines more than thirty of them internationally that were constructed over the past two decades and more. The museums are featured in individual entries and lavish color photography. Some were designed by internationally renowned architects such as Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Robert A.M. Stern, but many more are the products of creative, accomplished designers. Beyond the architecture of these museums, exhibition and installation designs by noted specialist firms such as Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Koosmann.dejong, and Gallagher & Associates, among others, have raised the bar in terms of immersive experiences for their visitors. New military museums presented within the book are examined within the context of the history of war memorials and military museums, the latter being a less well researched subject. In the end, military museums relate back to antique sculptural commemorationsof victorious campaigns and martial leaders, collections and displays of war trophies, and the search to find useful architectural memorials, the latter especially so after the World Wars of the twentieth century. Architectural historian John Zukowsky has an earned doctorate from Binghamton University. While curator of architecture for The Art Institute of Chicago (19782004), he organized a number of award-winning exhibitions accompanied by major books. After that, he held executive positions within military-related museums such as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. Since 2012 he has authored several books about architecture and design, including Why on Earth Would Anyone Build That (2015), Building Chicago: The Architectural Masterworks (2016), and Architecture Inside Out: Understanding How Buildings Work (2018).

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Manfred von Richthofen, the iconic Red Baron, has remained at the forefront of First World War studies ever since he became recognised as one of the most illustrious fighter pilot aces of the conflict. As we approach the centenary anniversary of his death and the ending of the Great War, it seems like a good time to introduce a new arrangement of photographs covering the entire span of his war. Since the release of his earlier books exploring similar themes, a constant trickle of new information has filtered down to the author. Although none of it specifically challenges the conclusions drawn in earlier publications, in consolidating them here hes been able to preserve some significant notes of interest. Following a number of visits to Belgium and Northern France in recent years, Franks has managed to acquire fascinating images illustrating the places in which the Red Baron lived and fought between 1916 and 1918. This collection represents the entire span of von Richthofens recorded history in pictures, some new and lesser-known, some iconic and widely circulated; all housed here together under one roof for the very first time.

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Winner of the Frank Watson Book Prize for the best book published on Scottish History Shortlisted for the Saltire Society History Book of the Year The legendary Scottish king Máel Coluim III, also known as ‘Malcolm Canmore’, is often held to epitomise Scotland’s ‘ancient Gaelic kings’. But Máel Coluim and his dynasty were in fact newcomers, and their legitimacy and status were far from secure at the beginning of his rule. Máel Coluim’s long reign from 1058 until 1093 coincided with the Norman Conquest of England, a revolutionary event that presented great opportunities and terrible dangers. Although his interventions in post-Conquest England eventually cost him his life, the book argues that they were crucial to his success as both king and dynasty-builder, creating internal stability and facilitating the takeover of Strathclyde and Lothian. As a result, Máel Coluim left to his successors a territory that stretched far to the south of the kingship’s heartland north of the Forth, similar to the Scotland we know today. The book explores the wider political and cultural world in which Máel Coluim lived, guiding the reader through the pitfalls and possibilities offered by the sources that mediate access to that world. Our reliance on so few texts means that the eleventh century poses problems that historians of later eras can avoid. Nevertheless Scotland in Máel Coluim’s time generated unprecedented levels of attention abroad and more vernacular literary output than at any time prior to the Stewart era.

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'Entertaining, shocking, uproarious, hilarious . . . like eavesdropping on a wake, as the mourners get gradually more drunk and tell ever more outrageous stories' Sunday Times'Riveting . . . An elegy to that vanished world . . . where people talked to each other and not just their mobile phones' Daily Mail‘The escapist read I needed’ Guardian'Wonderfully evocative' TLSThis is the definitive history of London's most notorious drinking den, the Colony Room Club in Soho. It’s a hair-raising romp through the underbelly of the post-war scene: during its sixty-year history, more romances, more deaths, more horrors and more sex scandals took place in the Colony than anywhere else.Tales from the Colony Room is an oral biography, consisting of previously unpublished and long-lost interviews with the characters who were central to the scene, giving the reader a flavour of what it was like to frequent the Club. With a glass in hand you’ll move through the decades listening to personal reminiscences, opinions and vitriol, from the authentic voices of those who were actually there.On your voyage through Soho’s lost bohemia, you’ll be served a drink by James Bond, sip champagne with Francis Bacon, queue for the loo with Christine Keeler, go racing with Jeffrey Bernard, get laid with Lucian Freud, kill time with Doctor Who, pick a fight with Frank Norman and pass out with Peter Langan. All with a stellar supporting cast including Peter O’Toole, George Melly, Suggs, Lisa Stansfield, Dylan Thomas, Jay Landesman, Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst and many, many more.

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Cool. It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude and style. As Joel Dinerstein reveals in this dynamic book, cool began as a stylish defiance of racism, a challenge to suppressed sexuality, a philosophy of individual rebellion, and a youthful search for social change. Through eye-opening portraits of iconic figures, Dinerstein illuminates the cultural connections and artistic innovations among Lester Young, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, among others. We eavesdrop on conversations among Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Miles Davis, and on a forgotten debate between Lorraine Hansberry and Norman Mailer over the "white Negro" and black cool. We come to understand how the cool worlds of Beat writers and Method actors emerged from the intersections of film noir, jazz, and existentialism. Out of this mix, Dinerstein sketches nuanced definitions of cool that unite concepts from African-American and Euro-American culture: the stylish stoicism of the ethical rebel loner; the relaxed intensity of the improvising jazz musician; the effortless, physical grace of the Method actor. To be cool is not to be hip and to be hot is definitely not to be cool. This is the first work to trace the history of cool during the Cold War by exploring the intersections of film noir, jazz, existential literature, Method acting, blues, and rock and roll. Dinerstein reveals that they came together to create something completely new—and that something is cool.

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Despite its rough-and-tumble image, Chicago has long been identified as a city where books take center stage. In fact, a volume by A. J. Liebling gave the Second City its nickname. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle arose from the midwestern capital's most infamous industry. The great Chicago Fire led to the founding of the Chicago Public Library. The city has fostered writers such as Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Chicago's literary magazines The Little Review and Poetry introduced the world to Eliot, Hemingway, Joyce, and Pound. The city's robust commercial printing industry supported a flourishing culture of the book. With this beautifully produced collection, Chicago's rich literary tradition finally gets its due. Chicago by the Book profiles 101 landmark publications about Chicago from the past 170 years that have helped define the city and its image. Each title-carefully selected by the Caxton Club, a venerable Chicago bibliophilic organization-is the focus of an illustrated essay by a leading scholar, writer, or bibliophile. Arranged chronologically to show the history of both the city and its books, the essays can be read in order from Mrs. John H. Kinzie's 1844 Narrative of the Massacre of Chicago to Sara Paretsky's 2015 crime novel Brush Back. Or one can dip in and out, savoring reflections on the arts, sports, crime, race relations, urban planning, politics, and even Mrs. O'Leary's legendary cow. The selections do not shy from the underside of the city, recognizing that its grit and graft have as much a place in the written imagination as soaring odes and boosterism. As Neil Harris observes in his introduction, "Even when Chicagoans celebrate their hearth and home, they do so while acknowledging deep-seated flaws." At the same time, this collection heartily reminds us all of what makes Chicago, as Norman Mailer called it, the "great American city." With essays from, among others, Ira Berkow, Thomas Dyja, Ann Durkin Keating, Alex Kotlowitz, Toni Preckwinkle, Frank Rich, Don Share, Carl Smith, Regina Taylor, Garry Wills, and William Julius Wilson; and featuring works by Saul Bellow, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sandra Cisneros, Clarence Darrow, Erik Larson, David Mamet, Studs Terkel, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many more.

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Hailed as "extraordinarily learned" (New York Times), "blithe in spirit and unerring in vision," (New York Magazine), and the "definitive record of New York's architectural heritage" (Municipal Art Society), Norval White and Elliot Willensky's book is an essential reference for everyone with an interest in architecture and those who simply want to know more about New York City. First published in 1968, the AIA Guide to New York City has long been the definitive guide to the city's architecture. Moving through all five boroughs, neighborhood by neighborhood, it offers the most complete overview of New York's significant places, past and present. The Fifth Edition continues to include places of historical importance--including extensive coverage of the World Trade Center site--while also taking full account of the construction boom of the past 10 years, a boom that has given rise to an unprecedented number of new buildings by such architects as Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, and Renzo Piano. All of the buildings included in the Fourth Edition have been revisited and re-photographed and much of the commentary has been re-written, and coverage of the outer boroughs--particularly Brooklyn--has been expanded. Famed skyscrapers and historic landmarks are detailed, but so, too, are firehouses, parks, churches, parking garages, monuments, and bridges. Boasting more than 3000 new photographs, 100 enhanced maps, and thousands of short and spirited entries, the guide is arranged geographically by borough, with each borough divided into sectors and then into neighborhood. Extensive commentaries describe the character of the divisions. Knowledgeable, playful, and beautifully illustrated, here is the ultimate guided tour of New York's architectural treasures.

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Europe's leading existential thinkers-Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus-all felt that Americans were too self-confident and shallow to accept their philosophy of responsibility, choice, and the absurd. "There is no pessimism in America regarding human nature and social organization," Sartre remarked in 1950, while Beauvoir wrote that Americans had no "feeling for sin and for remorse" and Camus derided American materialism and optimism. Existentialism, however, enjoyed rapid, widespread, and enduring popularity among Americans. No less than their European counterparts, American intellectuals participated in the conversation of existentialism. In Existential America, historian George Cotkin argues that the existential approach to life, marked by vexing despair and dauntless commitment in the face of uncertainty, has deep American roots and helps to define the United States in the twentieth-century in ways that have never been fully realized or appreciated. As Cotkin shows, not only did Americans readily take to existentialism, but they were already heirs to a rich tradition of thinkers-from Jonathan Edwards and Herman Melville to Emily Dickinson and William James-who had wrestled with the problems of existence and the contingency of the world long before Sartre and his colleagues. After introducing this concept of an American existential tradition, Cotkin examines how formal existentialism first arrived in America in the 1930s through discussion of Kierkegaard and the early vogue among New York intellectuals for the works of Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus. Cotkin then traces the evolution of existentialism in America: its adoption by Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison to help articulate the African-American experience; its expression in the works of Norman Mailer and photographer Robert Frank; its incorporation into the tenets of the feminist and radical student movements of the 1960s; and its lingering presence in contemporary American thought and popular culture, particularly in such films as Crimes and Misdemeanors, Fight Club and American Beauty. The only full-length study of existentialism in America, this highly engaging and original work provides an invaluable guide to the history of American culture since the end of the Second World War.

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The highly anticipated second volume of Freshwater Fishes of North America, a monumental, fully illustrated reference that provides comprehensive details on the freshwater fishes of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.When the first volume of Freshwater Fishes of North America was published, it was immediately hailed as the definitive reference in the field. Readers have been fervently awaiting the next volume in this encompassing three-book set ever since. Now complete, volume 2, covering families Characidae to Poeciliidae, is the result of decades of analysis by leading fish experts from universities and research laboratories across North America.Each volume in this authoritative synthesis covers the ecology, morphology, reproduction, distribution, behavior, taxonomy, conservation, and the fossil record of the included North American fish families. The encyclopedic reviews of each family are accompanied by color photographs (nearly 250 in this volume alone), range maps, and artwork created by noted fish illustrator Joseph R. Tomelleri. The result is a rich textual and visual experience that covers everything known about the diversity, natural history, ecology, and biology of North American freshwater fishes.Volume 2 covers the following North American families of fishes:Characidae (Characins)Ictaluridae (North American Catfishes)Ariidae (Sea Catfishes)Heptapteridae (Three-barbeled Catfishes)Osmeridae (Smelts)Esociformes (Esocidae, Pikes and Umbridae, Mudminnows)Percopsidae (Trout-perches)Amblyopsidae (Cavefishes)Aphredoderidae (Pirate Perches)Gadidae (Cods and Cuskfishes)Mugilidae (Mullets)Atherinopsidae (New World Silversides)Beloniformes (Needlefishes and Halfbeaks)Rivulidae (New World Rivulines)Profundulidae (Middle American Killifishes)Goodeidae (Goodeids)Fundulidae (Topminnows)Cyprinodontidae (Pupfishes)Poeciliidae (Livebearers)The chapter authors of Volume 2 are:Gianetta AdamsClyde BarbourMicah BennettRicardo Bentancur-R.Peter B. Z. BerendzenBrooks M. BurrMollie CashnerRobert C. CashnerBruce B. ColletteMatthew DavisAlice F. EchelleAnthony A. EchelleFernando GalvezMichael GhedottiNicholas GidmarkTerry GrandeRobert L. HopkinsLauren M. KuehneFrank McCormickNorman Mercado-SilvaAnn U. O'ConnellMartin T. O'ConnellJulian D. OldenClaudia Patricia Ornelas-GarciaMark Sabaj PerezKyle R. PillerSteven PowersJacob SchaeferJuan J. Schmitter-SotoAndrew M. SimonsRoger A. TaborCheryl ThieleMatthew ThomasMelvin L. Warren, Jr.Mark V. H. Wilson

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The long-awaited memoir of Julius Rudel, the legendary opera conductor and arts administrator, gives insight into his ground-breaking repertory choices and his collaborations with Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo, and others. As a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, Julius Rudel escaped from Austria after the Nazi invasion and moved to New York, where he began his career as an unpaid musical assistant and worked his way up through the ranks of the newly formed New York City Opera, being named in 1957 as the company's general director and principal conductor. Later, he became the first artistic director of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In his twenty-two-year leadership of New York City Opera, Rudel challenged audiences with new and unusual repertoire -- including fifteen world premieres and three seasons consisting entirely of American operas -- turning the popularly priced "People's Opera" intothe most influential and daring opera company in the United States. Rudel writes in detail of his unusual repertoire choices and of the political battles behind New York City Opera's move to Lincoln Center in 1966, and hereminisces about his legendary collaborations with Beverly Sills (on Handel's Giulio Cesare and Donizetti's "Three Queens") and Plácido Domingo (on Ginastera's Don Rodrigo) -- and about his work with other extraordinary talents including Norman Treigle, Phyllis Curtin, William Ball, Frank Corsaro, Tito Capobianco, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, Harold Prince, and Gian Carlo Menotti. First and Lasting Impressions givesa rare personal look into Julius Rudel's career as a conductor and administrator during the glory years of New York City Opera. Julius Rudel was general director and principal conductor of New York City Opera from 1957to 1979, and since that time has been a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and many of the world's other great opera houses. Rebecca Paller, a curator at the Paley Center for Media in New York, has written about the arts for publications including Opera News, Opera, Vogue, Playbill, Symphony, and American Theatre.

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Europe's leading existential thinkers-Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus-all felt that Americans were too self-confident and shallow to accept their philosophy of responsibility, choice, and the absurd. "There is no pessimism in America regarding human nature and social organization," Sartre remarked in 1950, while Beauvoir wrote that Americans had no "feeling for sin and for remorse" and Camus derided American materialism and optimism. Existentialism, however, enjoyed rapid, widespread, and enduring popularity among Americans. No less than their European counterparts, American intellectuals participated in the conversation of existentialism. In Existential America, historian George Cotkin argues that the existential approach to life, marked by vexing despair and dauntless commitment in the face of uncertainty, has deep American roots and helps to define the United States in the twentieth-century in ways that have never been fully realized or appreciated. As Cotkin shows, not only did Americans readily take to existentialism, but they were already heirs to a rich tradition of thinkers-from Jonathan Edwards and Herman Melville to Emily Dickinson and William James-who had wrestled with the problems of existence and the contingency of the world long before Sartre and his colleagues. After introducing this concept of an American existential tradition, Cotkin examines how formal existentialism first arrived in America in the 1930s through discussion of Kierkegaard and the early vogue among New York intellectuals for the works of Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus. Cotkin then traces the evolution of existentialism in America: its adoption by Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison to help articulate the African-American experience; its expression in the works of Norman Mailer and photographer Robert Frank; its incorporation into the tenets of the feminist and radical student movements of the 1960s; and its lingering presence in contemporary American thought and popular culture, particularly in such films as Crimes and Misdemeanors, Fight Club and American Beauty. The only full-length study of existentialism in America, this highly engaging and original work provides an invaluable guide to the history of American culture since the end of the Second World War.

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A feminist pioneer, writer, and patron of the arts and literature in Buenos Aires, Victoria Ocampo (1890–1979) was a larger-than-life personality of legendary vitality. A key protagonist in Argentina’s rise to world-class status in the arts and sciences, Ocampo leveraged her wealth and social status to found Sur (1931–92), the internationally influential journal of literature, culture, and ideas.Ocampo personally invited many intellectual and artistic celebrities to visit Buenos Aires. Most were men. Some, endowed with egos as outsized as their reputations, tripped and fell into sentimental imbroglios with the strong-willed and beautiful Ocampo. In Free Women in the Pampas the ups and downs of her passionate friendships, debates, and misunderstandings with poet Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, and the writers Pierre Drieu de la Rochelle, Hermann von Keyserling, and Waldo Frank are witnessed by the fictional Carmen Brey, a Galician-Spanish immigrant whose story is skilfully interwoven with that of Ocampo. Carmen’s sympathetic but incisive gaze puts her friend Victoria into perspective against a larger vision of Argentina. Carmen’s adventures lead her to social-justice writer María Rosa Oliver, the wilder side of the 1920s literary avant-garde (and the now-canonical authors Roberto Arlt, Jorge Luis Borges, and Leopoldo Marechal), the Mapuche people of the pampa, and a ten-year-old Evita Ibarguren, later famous as Eva Perón.Against this broad, inclusive backdrop, the novel vividly depicts Victoria Ocampo’s struggle with the strictures of class and gender to find her own voice and vocation as a public intellectual.

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Discover East Yorkshire and York with this Heritage Shell Guide. Here is an introduction to the towns, villages and buildings of the East Riding of Yorkshire, the City of Kingston upon Hull and the City of York. Written in the tradition of the famous Shell Guides, it is a glorious and insightful delve into the familiar, York and the little-known, East Yorkshire. Shell Guides were the brainchild of John Betjeman in the 1930s when people began to explore the country by car. They were designed to offer a frank and honest view of a county. As well as being an introduction and gazetteer the Heritage Shell Guide Trust has introduced maps and colour illustrations to these legendary guides. As well as York's remarkable heritage, this guide also celebrates East Yorkshire including: Dramatic chalk cliffs near Flamborough teem with bird colonies; The rolling Wolds, much painted by David Hockney; The ghostly marshland landscape of Spurn Head which guards the Humber estuary; Historic buildings of the maritime city of Hull and town of Beverley; York's famed Gothic Cathedral, fortress gates and narrow medieval streets. These are just a few of the highlights of a region just waiting to be explored! Let your Heritage Shell Guide to East Yorkshire and York help you uncover the beauty of this dramatic landscape. Shell County Guides: their history - The original series was the brainchild of John Betjeman. He thought there was a market for a plain-speaking guide - the 1930s was a new era when people began to explore the country by car. So, he approached the head of publicity at Shell, Jack Beddington; Beddington had artistic friends like Rex Whistler and Graham Sutherland who thought Betjeman's plan was excellent. The first Guide was Cornwall in which Betjeman frankly said Newquay had "20th century style...corrugated rows of villas, enormous hotels, flashing shops and Pierrots..." so readers knew what they were getting! His authors were artists, playwrights and academics like Norman Scarfe (Suffolk) who had a great affection for their county. He advised Juliet Smith (Northamptonshire) to pick out the buildings she liked, and "don't be afraid of saying that a place is hideous!" Ultimately the policy was a little gentler: to take the visitor by the hand and show them what was worth seeing in a place. In 1937 Betjeman linked up with John Piper who was erudite, unflappable, calm and business like; they wrote Shropshire together. In 1960 Piper became joint editor and in 1967 editor of the series. His ability to paint buildings with latent emotion was matched only by accomplishment in making stained glass for colleges, churches and cathedrals. But he favoured monochrome for photography which leached interest in the face of colour. Shell ended the series in 1984. One of Piper's favourite photographers, Peter Burton, produced a Shell-style North Yorkshire in 2001. This led to the formation of the Heritage Shell Guide Trust to continue the work Shell so nobly began, now funded by donations.

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**WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021****A FINANCIAL TIMES, I PAPER AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE YEAR**'In his absorbing book about the lost and the gone, Peter Ross takes us from Flanders Fields to Milltown to Kensal Green, to melancholy islands and surprisingly lively ossuaries . . . a considered and moving book on the timely subject of how the dead are remembered, and how they go on working below the surface of our lives.' - Hilary Mantel'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.' - The Guardian'The pages burst with life and anecdote while also examining our relationship with remembrance.' - Financial Times (best travel books of 2020)'Among the year's most surprising "sleeper" successes is A Tomb with a View. In a year with so much death, it may have initially seemed a hard sell, but the author's humanity has instead acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' - The Sunday Times'Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer'Ross has written [a] lively elegy to Britain's best burial grounds.' - Evening Standard (*Best New Books of Autumn 2020*)'One of the non-fiction books of the year.' - The i paper (*2020 Best Books for Christmas*)'Brilliant.' - Stylist (*Best Christmas books for Christmas 2020*)'Never has a book about death been so full of life. James Joyce and Charles Dickens would've loved it - a book that reveals much gravity in the humour and many stories in the graveyard. It also reveals Peter Ross to be among the best non-fiction writers in the country.' - Andrew O'Hagan'His stories are always a joy.' - Ian Rankin'I'm a card-carrying admirer of Peter Ross.' - Robert Macfarlane'A startling, delight-filled tour of graveyards and the people who love them, dazzlingly told.' - Denise Mina 'A phenomenal, lyrical, beautiful book.' - Frank Turner'A walk through the graveyards of Britain guided by one of the most engaging wordsmiths willing to take you by the hand.' - The Big Issue (*Best Books 2020*)'A celebration of life and of love. It confronts our universal fate but tends towards a comforting embrace of mortality. It is also imbued with something deeply moving.' - The Herald'Beautifully written and strangely life affirming.' - Norman Blake, Teenage Fanclub For readers of The Salt Path, Mudlarking, Ghostland, Kathleen Jamie and Robert Macfarlane. Enter a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning writer Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards. Who are London's outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian angel? What is the remarkable truth about Phoebe Hessel, who disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her sweetheart, and went on to live in the reigns of five monarchs? Why is a Bristol cemetery the perfect wedding venue for goths? All of these sorrowful mysteries - and many more - are answered in A Tomb With A View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath.So push open the rusting gate, push back the ivy, and take a look inside...

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A gorgeous hardcover time capsule of the emo music scene as it was from 1996 to 2006, featuring never-before-seen photographs and never-before-told stories from key emo musicians, photographers, and icons. While the term emo has become a familiar label, there was a time when that wasn't the case. Many bands of the mid-to-late '90s would never have classified themselves as such - back then, the term was not only inaccurate but often used derogatorily. With the advent of the 2000s, the previously underground emo scene was put on the map, and the term and sound of the genre morphed into something new. A musical renaissance was happening, but bands didn't give much thought to the label in the long term. Nothing mattered, as long as the kids came out to shows. Today, the musical and cultural impact of this movement is alive and well, responsible for some of the biggest and most influential acts of the 21st century, from Jimmy Eat World to My Chemical Romance, and the emo label has been reclaimed by those who can't imagine life without Through rare and never-before-seen photographs Amy Fleisher Madden, founder of Fiddler Records (Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory, Recover, and more), thoughtfully and lovingly puts together this moving archive of the second and third waves of emo. With a foreword by Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional) and revealing essays from Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), Geoff Rickly (Thursday), Norman Brannon (Texas Is the Reason), and Matt Pryor (The Get Up Kids), as well as insights and bite-sized narratives from photographers and other musicians of the era, this heartwarming time capsule expounds an extraordinary moment in music history - a scene that gave life to not only numerous big names but also to a powerful sound and even more powerful friendships. Featuring over 80 bands, including: Jimmy Eat World Dashboard Confessional My Chemical Romance Texas Is the Reason Taking Back Sunday The Get Up Kids Thursday The Promise Ring American Football Saosin From basements and VFW halls to dive bars and hole-in-the-walls, during long overnight drives through the middle of nowhere and stolen moments of sleep in carbon-copy motels, Negatives captures the heart of what made up this tight-knit community, an official archive of life as it was, taking you on stage, behind the curtain, and on the road.

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Following the extraordinary career of a Second World War bomber pilot, Flying Among Heroes brings together adventure and human daring with the harsh realities of being a member of the wartime Royal Air Force. Tom Cooke, like hundreds of other young men in 1939, joined up to the RAF just a few days before war began aged 18, being selected for pilot training. Just five years later, he had flown fifty-one operations, taken part in the Berlin bombings and three 1,000-bomber raids, and had even taken part in special operations in conjunction with the SOE. Not only did Cooke volunteer for an optional second and third tour of operations, but he was also shot down over France on his thirteenth special operation, survived the bale out with his crew and evaded capture. Helped by the French Resistance, he managed to make his way into Spain and was taken back to England from Gibraltar. Unsurprisingly, considering Cooke’s outstanding bravery and patriotism, he was decorated multiple times in his career. Franks and Muggleton make use of primary documentation, including Cooke’s own words, and contemporary images to put together a poignant story of wartime duty. In an effort to portray the situation for many young men like Cooke, much information is included on other squadrons and operations, as well as on Bomber Command itself. In all, 55,000 men of Bomber Command gave their lives to the cause of the Second World War; this is the tale of just one of those remarkable young men who survived the hardships of war, returning victorious to a nation of heroes.

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Build a Christ-Centered Love that LastsAt a time when more people are delaying marriage or writing it off altogether, couples ready to walk the aisle will appreciate a frank and trusted resources to help them start marriage on the right foot.This interactive Christian guide will help you explore your relationship in depth and will provide new insight into your partner and how the two of you relate to one another establish your wants and needs as individuals and a couple before your marriage begins lay the groundwork for biblical and honest conversation for a stronger, healthier marriage reveal how life events and family background can influence decision making in finances, family, education, faith and career engage you in activities that lead to thought-provoking discussion that address your past experiences and current expectations Engaging and easy-to-use, Before You Say “I Do” is full of tried-and-true wisdom to help you plan for your future and build a lasting relationship with the one you love.

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Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few Seventy-five years on the unforgettable words of Winston Churchill ring as powerfully as they did in August 1940 when the young men of the RAF stood as the last line of defence against Hitlers far more powerful Luftwaffe. This emotional yet factual book describes the three and a half months (10 July 31 October 1940) battle day-by-day and covers the essential details of every one of the 540 young pilots who died in this critical campaign that saved Britain from invasion by the Nazis. Thanks to the authors painstaking research we are given a short biography of each pilots and learn of their actions and the manner of their deaths, their squadrons and planes. The result is a unique record and fitting memorial of the courage and sacrifice of this select band of heroes. The text is enhanced by photographs of the individuals themselves.

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When the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged on 1 April 1918, to form the Royal Air Force, the new command needed to have its own gallantry medals to distinguish itself from the Army and the Royal Navy. Thus the new Distinguished Flying Cross came into being. Not that this new award (along with the Distinguished Flying Medal for non-commissioned personnel) came into immediate use, but as 1918 progressed, awards that earlier might have produced the Military Cross or Distinguished Service Cross, became the Distinguished Flying Cross. By the end of WWI a large number of DFCs and First Bars had been awarded, but only three Second Bars had been promulgated for First War actions. Before WWII erupted, only four more Second Bars had been awarded, for actions largely in what we would now call the Middle East. By the end of the WWII, awards of the DFC and First Bars had multiplied greatly, but only fifty Second Bars had been awarded (and Gazetted), making fifty-seven in all between 1918 and 1946. To this can be added three more, awarded post-WWII, between 1952-1955, making a grand total of sixty. Still a significantly small number of members of this pretty exclusive ‘club’. Within the covers of this book recorded for the first time together are the mini-biographies of all those sixty along with the citations that accompanied their awards, or in some cases the recommendations for them. Also recorded are citations for other decorations such as the Distinguished Service Order, et al. The recommendations were often longer than the actual citations themselves, and during periods of large numbers of all types of awards, these citations did not make it into the London Gazette, recording name of the recipient only. As the reader will discover, the range of airmen who received the DFC and Two Bars, cover most of the ambit of WWII operations, be they fighter pilots, bomber pilots, night-fighter aircrew, aircrew navigators, engineers, etc, or reconnaissance pilots. Each has interesting stories, proving, if proof be needed, their gallantry in action.

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Manfred von Richthofen became a fighter pilot on the Western Front in August 1916. By January 1917, Richthofen had shot down fifteen aircraft had been appointed commander of his own unit. He painted the fuselage of his Albatros D-III bright red and was nicknamed the Red Baron. This book is divided into three sectors of the WWI front line in which von Richthofen operated. Airfield sites, memorials and the graves of Manfred's famous victims are described with directions for the battlefield walker.

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Having photographically covered the British Aces of World War I in his book British and American Aces of World War I: The Pictorial Record, it followed that the RAF and Commonwealth aces of World War II should also be depicted in a single volume. This book therefore shows all RAF, Commonwealth and other country (tm)s aces who flew with the RAF between 1939-1945. Featured here "" in most cases as portraits "" are those fighter pilots who achieved ten or more victories. This is the first time that the faces of these men have been featured in one book, paying tribute to them and all RAF fighter pilots of the Second World War.

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The air aces of Imperial Germany’s Luftstreitkräfte are an ever-popular subject among aviation historians, enthusiasts, war gamers, and aircraft modelers. The images of famous airmen such as Manfred von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, and Werner Voss are well known and frequently published, but the same cannot be said for all of the over 300 German airmen who achieved five or more aerial victories in the Great War. Their stories have often been published, but never have as many photographs of the aces been assembled within the pages of one volume. Of necessity these photos vary widely in style, format and quality, yet they serve to reveal a good deal of information about the pilots and the multitude of different uniforms and decorations they wore. Students of World War I aircraft will also find useful illustrations of the various machines in which these pilots attained their fame. Over 330 photographs of the aces are provided. The aces are listed in ‘score’ order, starting with the ‘Red Baron’ himself with eighty victories, and proceeding down the list to the last alphabetically ordered airman with five claims, Martin Zander. Each photograph is accompanied by a brief service history and victory total of the ace.

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When the Second World War began in 1939 it was thought that it would be fought along the same lines as the First World War, with the Allied air forces operating from both Britain and France. With the fall of Britain's Northern European Allies in May 1940, all that changed. From then onwards, RAF aircraft operating over enemy and enemy-held territory necessitated flights across both the North Sea and the English Channel. This meant that aircrew in difficulties would be forced to come down in both of these bodies of water. Therefore it was essential that some form of rescue service be made available to fish these airman from the water. But there were no aircraft in existence at that time that were designed for such a task: initially all that could be done was to use land 'planes to help locate anyone in the water, drop a dinghy to them, and then guide a boat to their position. Obviously a quicker and more reliable means of rescue was needed, and this came in the shape of the Supermarine Walrus, an amphibian aeroplane that could land on both sea and land.Several Flights of these aeroplanes were set up around the coast of Britain, concentrated mainly around the south and south-east of England. The Air Sea Rescue airmen did a magnificent job from 1941-45, rescuing hundreds of downed RAF and USAAF aircrew. It took a special type of airman to undertake these rescues - and another kind of courage. As the war in North Africa developed, Walrus aircraft were needed in the Mediterranean, and later on either side of the Italian coast. Walrus squadrons operated just as successfully in this theatre as around Britain. Aircrew operating over any stretch of water could always count on the ASR boys coming to their aid. This is their story.

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During the First World War, Italy was on the side of their British Allies and their fight was against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, bordering on Austria. In October 1917, the Austro-Hungarians managed to push the Italians back during the battle of Caporetto. With the danger signs obvious, both Britain and France sent reinforcements. Britain s Royal Flying Corps sent three squadrons of Sopwith Camel fighters, plus one RE8 reconnaissance squadron, and these Camel squadrons fought gallantly over the plains and mountainous regions of north-east Italy, sharing the air battle with aircraft of the Italian Air Force. Despite the difference in landscape between France and Italy, the Camel pilots employed the same air-fighting tactics and assisted in ground support missions that proved just as destructive in Italy as they had in France. Accompanied by a large selection of photographs of the men and the machines that saw action in this conflict, this book is a welcome addition to Pen and Sword s Images of War series.

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Jimmy Sheddan was one of the many New Zealanders who joined the RNZAF, then left his native land to come to England to fight the enemies of Great Britain and her Empire during World War Two. Through his recollections we can share some of the trials and wartime tribulations they faced. Yet we can read too of the enormous amount of fun these men had despite the dangers and sacrifices of war. It is this quality which endears his book to us as well as the achievements of the airmen with whom he served. During the war, Jim Sheddan rose from the rank of sergeant pilot to squadron leader with 486 Squadron, a considerable achievement. After starting with Spitfires, then going onto the Typhoon, Jim became an expert on the Hawker Tempest, winning the DFC. In many ways his is a very special account as, amongst other things, he survived 19 hours in a dinghy off the French coast, a crash landing in a Tempest after a battle with a V1 flying bomb, and the advance across northern Europe in the final weeks of the war. Few Tempest pilots have told their story but Jim has, and in an honest, self-effacing way that will astound and enthral. With a foreword by AVM J E Johnnie Johnson, CB, CBE, DSO and 2 bars, DFC and bar.

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