Reproduction of the original: Merton of the Movies by Harry Leon Wilson

On the surface it may seem slightly surprising that a master of verbal humour should also be a devotee of silent comedy, but Paul Merton is completely passionate about the early days of Hollywood comedy and the comic geniuses who dominated it. His knowledge is awesome - as anyone who watched his BBC 4 series Silent Clowns or attended the events he has staged nationwide will agree - his enthusiasm is infectious, and these qualities are to be found in abundance in his book. Starting with the very earliest pioneering short films, he traces the evolution of silent comedy through the 1900s and considers the works of the genre's greatest exponents - Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd - showing not only how each developed in the course of their career but also the extent to which they influenced each other. At the same time, Paul brings a comedian's insight to bear on the art of making people laugh, and explores just how the great comic ideas, routines, gags and pratfalls worked and evolved. His first book for ten years, this is destined to be a classic.

For forty years, James Finley’s Merton's Palace of Nowhere has been the standard text for exploring, reflecting on, and understanding the rich vein of Thomas Merton's thought. Spiritual identity is the quest to know who we are, to find meaning, to overcome that sense of “Is this all there is?” Merton’s message cuts to the heart of this universal quest, and Finley illuminates that message as no one else can. As a young man of eighteen, Finley left home for an unlikely destination: the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton lived as a contemplative. Finley stayed at the monastery for six maturing years and later wrote this Merton’s Palace of Nowhere in order to share a taste of what he had learned on his spiritual journey under the guidance of one of the great religious figures of our time. At the heart of the quest for spiritual identity are Merton's illuminating insights—leading from an awareness of the false and illusory self to a realization of the true self. Dog-eared, tattered, underlined copies of this book are found on the bookshelves of retreat centers, parish libraries, and the homes of spiritual seekers everywhere. This anniversary edition brings a classic to a new generation and includes a new preface by Finley.

One man's search to find his role in the world is revealed in the writer's portrait of his youthful political activism and entry into a Trappist monastery

In 1969, one year after Thomas Merton's tragic (and suspicious) death, John Howard Griffin was invited to write a biography of America's most famous monk, a monk who strangely had become a best-selling theologian. The result was Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton (1983). Both Merton and Griffin were converts to Catholicism, and they had become fast friends during Griffin's occasional retreats to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani where Merton was cloistered. As Robert Bonazzi writes in his Foreword, "With natural humility and intense spirituality, they taught each other by example and silence." Merton and Griffin were both photographers as well as writers. Griffin wrote about Merton's painting and photography in A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton (1970). They also shared a fascination with the French theologian Jacques Maritain, as well as French modernists Pierre Reverdy, George Braque, and Albert Camus. Griffin fell ill before he could finish his biography of Merton, and the mantle of official biographer passed to Michael Mott, author of The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, an essential compendium of the monk's life. Yet Follow the Ecstasy gets closer to the man--a portrait made by one who shared not only personal histories and interests with Merton, but an "intuitive perspective of solitude."

This outstanding memorial volume records and reassesses the contributions of Merton M. Gill (1914-1994), a principal architect of psychoanalytic theory and a principled exemplar of the modern psychoanalytic sensibility throughout the second half of the 20th century. Critical evaluations of Gill's place in psychoanalysis and a series of personal and professional reminiscences are joined to substantive reengagement of central controversies in which Gill played a key part. These controversies revolve around the "natural science" versus "hermeneutic" orientation in psychoanalysis (Holt, Eagle, Friedman); the status of psychoanalysis as a one-person and/or two-person psychology (Jacobs, Silverman); pyschoanalysis versus psychotherapy (Wallerstein, Migone, Gedo); and the meaning and use of transference (Kernberg, Wolitzky, Cooper).

In 1925, Vachel Lindsay wrote The Progress and Poetry of the Movies as a sequel to his pioneering Art of the Moving Picture (1915). The present edition of The Progress and Poetry of the Movies, never published in Lindsay's lifetime, contributes to our understanding of the genealogy of contemporary film studies.

The Documentary as seen on PBS. Noted by Google ' as a best book of 2008 A companion to award-winning producer Morgan Atkinson's documentary of the same title, this work draws us into the geographical landscape of Thomas Merton's life in America, a landscape that was intrinsic to his spiritual journey. Containing a considerable amount of rich material unused in the documentary, Soul Searching is alive with the narrative of those who either knew Merton well or passionately care about him: Father Daniel Berrigan, Rosemary Ruether, Martin Marty, Paul Elie, and many others. Their insights are linked to the places 'from the Abbey of Gethsemani to the Redwoods Monastery in California, from New York City to Christ in the Desert Monastery in New Mexico that both nurtured and shaped Merton. The picture that emerges, through both the narrative and vivid photography, is filled with provocative insights into the interior landscape of one of the spiritual giants of modern times.

From a look at classics like Psycho and Double Indemnity to recent films like Traffic and Thelma & Louise, Nicole Rafter and Michelle Brown show that criminological theory is produced not only in the academy, through scholarly research, but also in popular culture, through film. Criminology Goes to the Movies connects with ways in which students are already thinking criminologically through engagements with popular culture, encouraging them to use the everyday world as a vehicle for theorizing and understanding both crime and perceptions of criminality. The first work to bring a systematic and sophisticated criminological perspective to bear on crime films, Rafter and Brown's book provides a fresh way of looking at cinema, using the concepts and analytical tools of criminology to uncover previously unnoticed meanings in film, ultimately making the study of criminological theory more engaging and effective for students while simultaneously demonstrating how theories of crime circulate in our mass-mediated worlds. The result is an illuminating new way of seeing movies and a delightful way of learning about criminology.