A leading art patron, lecturer, and author of the Victorian era, John Ruskin was also one of the period's foremost art and social critics. This anthology features excerpts from some of his best-known books, including Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice, on the subjects he held most dear: nature, art, and society.

Drawn from the well-known musicologist's celebrated Essays in Musical Analysis, this volume contains nearly all of the concertos in the standard repertoire, from Bach's concerto for two violins to Walton's concerto for viola. More than fifty selections include choral works with in-depth essays on Bach's Mass in B minor, Beethoven's Mass in D, Brahms's and Verdi's Requiems, Haydn's The Creation and The Seasons, and many other landmark works. Donald...

The Wisdom of John Muir marries the best aspects of a Muir anthology with the best aspects of a Muir biography. The fact that it is neither, and yet it is both, distinguishes this book from the many extant books on John Muir. Building on her lifelong passion for the work and philosophy of John Muir, author Anne Rowthorn has created this entirely new treatment for showcasing the great naturalist's philosophy and writings. By pairing carefully selected...

Few game designers have shared as many lessons learned as Raph Koster. In a quarter-century of writings and talks, he has offered up game design lessons, online community theories, and candid self-evaluation. This first volume of a three-book set of selected essays collects previously written postmortems and many brand new pieces. They are accompanied by historical material such as posts written for players, chat logs, speeches, design sketches, and...

This concise collection of the Founding Father's public and private writings provides an introduction to his life, personality, political career, and influence on the early history of the United States. Contents include Hamilton's political essays, selections from the Federalist Papers, First Report on the Public Credit and Report on a National Bank, and personal correspondence with his wife, friends, and political colleagues.

"The New World History is a comprehensive volume of essays selected to enrich world history teaching and scholarship in this rapidly expanding field. The forty-four articles in this book take stock of the history, evolving literature, and current trajectories of new world history. These essays, together with the editors' introductions to thematic chapters, encourage educators and students to reflect critically on the development of the field and to...

Excerpt: "I do not know whether this will awaken a sympathetic lassitude in, say, fifty per cent. of its readers, or whether my experience is unique and my testimony simply curious. At any rate, it is as true as I can make it. Whether this is a mere mood, and a certain flagrant exhilaration my true attitude towards things, or this is my true attitude and the exuberant phase a lapse from it, I cannot say. Probably it does not matter. The thing is that...

The twelfth installment of Best Canadian Essays speaks with striking prescience to our contemporary moment. "This book-like most that have found their way into the world this fall-began life in the Before Times," writes editor Sarmishta Subramanian. Written and first published by leading magazines and journals in 2019, the essays selected here speak with striking prescience to our contemporary moment. From health concerns both global and individual;...

Zen Slaps from a Cancer Warrior is the irreverent memoir of a passionate photographer/writer fighting cancer on his own terms, while living a love story. James Hockings is a witty and sometimes profound companion for anyone facing a life-threatening disease. He has written a soulful answer to Hitchens' Mortality. For Jim Hockings at 64, life was very good indeed. The respected photographer had launched a writing career with the 1960's novel The Redemption...

"Upstream follows Oliver as she contemplates the pleasure of artistic labor, her boundless curiosity for the flora and fauna that surround her, and the responsibility she has inherited from Shelley, Wordsworth, Emerson, Poe, and Frost, the great thinkers and writers of the past, to live thoughtfully, intelligently, and to observe with passion. Throughout this collection, Oliver positions not just herself upstream but us as well as she encourages us...