"Byrd often mused about what would happen to the land in the future. While some of the dividing line still feels like wilderness, it is crisscrossed today by bridges and roads, its forests felled and paved over for parking lots and subdivisions, its waters diverted or drained. Ausband's story, therefore, is a natural history of a changed region."--BOOK JACKET.

Since its release in 1971, Don McLean's song "American Pie" has become an indelible part of U.S. culture. It has sparked countless debates about the references within the lyrics; been celebrated as a chronicle of American life from the late 1950s through the early 1970s; and has become iconic itself as it has been remade, parodied, and referenced within numerous texts and forums. This volume offers a set of new essays that focus on the cultural and historical significance of the song. Representing a variety of perspectives and fields of study, the essays address such topics as historical and literary interpretations of the song's lyrics, its musical qualities, the commentary the song offers on rock and roll history, the continuing significance of the song, and the ways in which the song has been used by various writers and artists. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The Byrds of Virginia are among the most powerful and influential families in this country--and are also one of the oldest. The first Byrd ("William I") settled in Virginia in 1670 and was the founder of the Byrd dynasty that is vigorously represented today by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Now, eminent author Alden Hatch, with style, wit and extraordinary scholarship, traces the history of the Byrds from 1670 to the present in one of the most engrossing and important biographies of an American family to appear in many years. -- Front book flap

This was originally a two volume set which is now bound as one. Here is presented an investigation of the nature of the earliest extant records of the supposed communication with angels and spirits of John Dee (1527-1608) with the assistance of his two mediums or 'scryers', Barnabas Saul and Edward Kelly. Volume 2 of this work is a transcription of the records in Dee's hand contained in Sloane MS 3188, which has been transcribed only once before, by Elias Ashmole in 1672. Volume 1 is an introduction and thorough commentary to the text which is primarily explaining its many obscurities. The author describes the physical state of the manuscript and its history then continues with a biography of Dee and his scryers and some background to Renaissance occult philosophy. Further chapters address the arguments that the manuscript represents a conscious fraud or a cryptographical exercise and describe the magical system and instruments evolved during the communications or 'Actions'. The last, fascinating chapter examines Dee's motives for believing so strongly in the truth of the Actions and suggests that a principal motive was the conviction, not held by Dee alone, that a new age was about to dawn upon earth.

The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.

The original Byrds reunion album re-presented with superb audio. In late 1972, the classic, original line-up of THE BYRDS - Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn and Michael Clarke - reunited to record their first album together since 1965. While each of the band members had continued to tour and record extensively, they had been talking about a possible Byrds reunion project for some time which became a reality when Asylum Records president David Geffen signed the band. The resultant album Byrds (1973) brought the band's mix of folk rock and country rock to a fresh audience who had already picked up on newer artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Tom Waits. Musically The Byrds were in fine form with those trademark harmony vocals well to the fore on the likes of the breezy 'Full Circle', the acerbic 'Long Live the King', the anthemic rocker 'Born to Rock 'n Roll', the gloriously up-tempo 'Things will be Better' plus exceptional covers of Joni Mitchell's 'For Free' and Neil Young's 'Cowgirl in the Sand' and '(See the Sky) About to Rain'. Recorded at the famous Waller Heider Recording Studios in San Francisco, the state of the art studio facility on the West Coast at the time. The album was a US Top 20 hit and it remains an overlooked classic that continues to improve with age. "The band's direction is no-nonsense, straight-ahead music... The Byrds make it on the strength of the music alone" (NME, 1973). With extra two tracks from Gene Clark - 'She's the Kind of Girl' and 'One in a Hundred' - the connection being that these 1971 sessions feature the full Byrds complement of Clark, Hillman, Crosby, McGuinn and Clarke.