Eric Ormsby is a poet who writes prose that is both graceful and hard-headed. With an outspoken contempt for cant and literary persiflage, Ormsby ranges over a surprising array of writers and literatures. Each essay involves a new and sometimes startling viewpoint, whether on Hart Crane's homosexuality and its effect on his poems or the strange and twisted, yet redeeming, place which Shakespeare held in his own family history. From American and Canadian poetry to Classical Arabic literature Ormsby brings a fresh slant and incisive expression to his prose. What was Franz Kafka doing at a ski resort in the last years of his life and what did he do there besides tobogganing? Everyone knows that Jorge Luis Borges was bookish, but did you know he was bloodthirsty as well? How is Pat Lowther's posthumous reputation as a poet connected with the brutal circumstances of her murder? These and other mysteries are explored in the 17 elegant essays that make up Eric Ormby's new book.

When the Book of Abraham was first published to the world in 1842, it was published as "a translation of some ancient records that have fallen into [Joseph Smith's] hands from the catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called 'The Book of Abraham, Written by his Own Hand, upon Papyrus.'" The resultant record was thus connected with the papyri once owned by Joseph Smith, though which papyrus of the four or five in his possession was never specified. Those papyri would likely interest only a few specialists--were the papyri not bound up in a religious controversy. This controversy covers a number of interrelated issues, and an even greater number of theories have been put forward about these issues. Given the amount of information available, the various theories, and the variety of fields of study the subject requires, misunderstandings and misinformation often prevail. The goal with the Introduction to the Book of Abraham is to make reliable information about the Book of Abraham accessible to the general reader.

At the turn of the fifteenth century, private devotionals became a speciality of the renowned Ghent-Bruges illuminators. Wealthy patrons who commissioned work from these artists often spared no expense in the presentation of their personal prayer books, or 'books of hours', from detailed decoration to luxurious bindings and embroidery. This enchanting illuminated manuscript was painted by the Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary (known as the David Master), one of the renowned Flemish illuminators in the sixteenth century. Every page of the manuscript is exquisitely decorated. Fine architectural interiors, gorgeous landscapes and detailed city scenes, each one depicting a narrative, form the subjects of three full-size illuminations and forty-two full-page miniatures. There are floral borders on a gold ground or historiated borders in the Flemish and Italian style on every page. It is one of the finest examples of medieval illumination in a personal prayer book and the most copiously illustrated work of the David Master to survive. The manuscript owes its name to the French Queen, Marie de' Medici, widow of King Henri IV. For a time she went into exile in Brussels, where she is thought to have acquired the manuscript before moving again to Cologne. An inscription in English states that she left the book of hours in this city, and it is here that an English manuscript collector, Francis Douce, may have acquired the book and eventually donated it to the Bodleian Library. Together with a scholarly introduction that gives an overview of Flemish illumination and examines each of the illustrations in detail, this full-colour facsimile limited edition, bound in linen, faithfully reproduces all 176 pages of the original manuscript. It is beautifully presented in a slipcase with a photographic reproduction of the original, delicately embroidered velvet binding.

Descriptive bibliography of every known book produced by Mormons in support of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the period 1830-1847. Also includes some author biographies.

Many readers of the Pearl of Great Price give the facsimiles in the book of Abraham only a cursory glance before turning to something more familiar and understandable. That's because the facsimiles are Egyptian in nature and do not seem relevant in our modern world of gospel enlightenment. So what is their worth? It is self-evident that we have received no useless and unneeded revelations, said Elder Bruce R. McConkie. All that the Lord does has a purpose and serves a need. A Study Guide to the Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham shows the meaning of every character in the facsimiles and helps readers comprehend their great value. As translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith, they bear witness of the gospel as had by Adam, Noah, and other ancient patriarchs. Appealing to translation, inspiration, and likening, author Allen J. Fletcher brings to light the more mysterious components of the facsimiles, helping us make sense of them in our day and apply their timeless teachings in our lives.

Is a facsimile an edition? In answering this question in relation to Shakespeare, and to early modern writing in general, the author explores the interrelationship between the beginning of the conventional process of collecting and editing Shakespeare's plays and the increasing sophistication of facsimiles. While recent scholarship has offered a detailed account of how Shakespeare was edited in the eighteenth century, the parallel process of the 'exact' reproduction of his texts has been largely ignored. The author will explain how facsimiles moved during the eighteenth and nineteenth century from hand drawn, traced, and type facsimiles to the advent of photographical facsimiles in the mid nineteenth century. Facsimiles can be seen as a barometer of the reverence accorded to the idea of an authentic Shakespeare text, and also of the desire to possess, if not original texts, then reproductions of them.

The Stammheim Missal is one of the most visually dazzling and theologically ambitious works of German Romanesque art. Containing the text recited by the priest and the chants sung by the choir at mass, the manuscript was produced in Lower Saxony around 1160 at Saint Michael's Abbey at Hildesheim, a celebrated abbey in medieval Germany. This informative volume features color illustrations of all the manuscript's major decorations. The author surveys the manuscript, its illuminations, and the circumstances surrounding its creation, then explores the tradition of the illumination of mass books and the representation of Jewish scriptures in Christian art. Teviotdale then considers the iconography of the manuscript's illuminations, identifies and translates many of its numerous Latin inscriptions, and finally considers the missal and its visually sophisticated and religiously complex miniatures as a whole.

A gorgeous hardcover edition of the timeless holiday classic, featuring stunning full-color illustrations by Arthur Rackham, with a gilt-stamped cloth cover, acid-free paper, sewn bindings, and a silk ribbon marker. No holiday season is complete without Charles Dickens's dramatic and heartwarming story of the transformation of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge through the efforts of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Set on a cold Christmas Eve in Victorian London, and featuring Scrooge's long-suffering and mild-mannered clerk, Bob Cratchit; Bob’s kindhearted son, Tiny Tim; and a host of colorful characters, A Christmas Carol was an instant hit and has been beloved ever since by generations of readers of all ages.