George Byron Wright

Anonymous. BLACK CATS AND CHIMNEY SWEEPS - An Anthology of Superstition and Folklore, Oxford, England Past Times 1997
Very Good+

(viii) 184 pp. First Thus. Light rubbing on the corners with a flat uncreased spine; no interior markings. Illustrated with line drawings. The Chapters are: From the Cradle: - selections from: John Aubrey; E. M. Wright; Sir Thomas Browne; Francis Grose; Thomas Hardy; Charlotte Mary Yonge; J. E. Vaux; F. T. Elworthy; and Francis Kilvert; My True Love for to See: selections from: John Keats; J. Misson de Valbourg; Robert Southey; Cuthbert Bede; Frances Winwar; Edmund Waller; and others previously mentioned; With This Ring: selections from: J. T. Atkinson; Loaring; Ella Mary Leather; MS Fairfax-Blakeborough; and others previously mentioned; Good Fortune Go With You: selections from: Major B. Lowsley; Thomas Berwick; Francis Douce; William Blake; William Wordsworth; Robert Herrick; and others previously mentioned; Of Hearth and Home: selections from: Edward Thomas; Mollie Harris; John Gay; J. G. Campbell; Alfred Lord Tennyson; Percy Shaw Jeffrey; and others previously mentioned; Body and Soul: selections from: J. Arthur Gibbs; Thomas Tusser; Thomas Jenner; Francis Bacon; George Stuart; James Woodforde; Gilbert White; Horace Walpole; and others previously mentioned; Daily Bread: selections from: Joseph Addison; George and Weedon Grossmith; Robert Herrick; John Penrose; Thomas de Quincey; J. Brand; Lord Byron; and others previously mentioned; The Daily Round: F. E. Witts; Richard Huggett; Ellen Terry; Reginald Scot; and others previously mentioned; Rites of Passage: Lady Wilde; Richard Corbet; William Lilly; Robert Southey; William Chapman; Thomas Love Peacock; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; and others previously mentioned; Beasts of Field and Forest: Sir Thomas Browne; W. Stonehouse; and others previously mentioned; Beliefs of Birds and Bees: Richard Gough; and others previously mentioned; Wisdom and Witchcraft: selections from: Henry Fielding; E. M. Delafield; Charles Churchill; and others previously mentioned; Sprights and Walking of Ghosts: Samuel Johnson; William Shakespeare; John Clare; Ambrose Bierce; Mary Dunn; and others previously mentioned; In Times of Peril: selections from: Anthony a Wood; and others previously mentioned; and To the Grave: selections from: Max Beerbohm; and others previously mentioned. Scans are available for all books. First Printing Trade Paperback 8vo

[SW: fantasy legend;]

Details

Nicholas Shrady. Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa. Penguin (Non-Classics), 2004
0143034502 The Washington Post Shrady has written something akin to a biography of the famed and flawed bell tower... The New York Times Book Review A lively and engaging account... informative and often amusing. Book Description In the tradition of the bestselling Brunelleschi?s Dome, this acclaimed book by architectural critic Nicholas Shrady takes a look?from every angle?at one of the most storied and recognizable structures in the world. The Tower of Pisa has withstood gravity, war, earthquakes, and an onslaught of tourists for hundreds of years. But Shrady shows us much more than a structure that has defied the odds. Boasting a revolutionary design at its construction, the tower has born witness to a remarkable history, from its celebration by Romantics like Lord Byron to the corrective surgery at the hands of Mussolini that almost ruined it. Hugely entertaining and informative, Tilt is a triumph worthy of its imperfect yet enduring subject. About the Author Nicholas Shrady is the author of Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail. His articles have appeared in Architectural Digest, The New York Times Book Review, Travel & Leisure, Forbes, and Town & Country. LEAN INTO IT A NEW SLANT ON THE TOWER OF PISA by Jason Zasky The Tower of Pisa has been called "the world's most famous construction mistake" and "the world's longest-standing impending structural collapse." Yet it remains upright in spite of its age and precarious lean, not to mention the numerous invasive restoration projects it has endured. Ironically, it took the 1989 collapse of the mundanely perpendicular Civic Tower in Pavia, for Italians to get serious about stabilizing their country's most famous architectural structure. From early 1990 until December 2001 it remained closed to the public while engineers implemented a complex30 million rescue plan. The Tower still looks as if it might collapse at any moment, but in reality, it is more stable now than at any time in the past few centuries. Nicholas Shrady, author of "Tilt" (photo by George Wright) In the recent book "Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa" (Simon & Schuster), author Nicholas Shrady recounts the history of the Tower of Pisa in all of its off-kilter glory. Fittingly, "Tilt" has a difficult-to-describe slanted binding that makes it as distinctive among hardcovers as the Tower is among man-made structures. Failure recently had the opportunity to ask Shrady a few questions about the Tower, as well as his book's unique binding. Would you describe the Tower of Pisa as the product of flawed construction? Most certainly. To begin with, the Tower of Pisa, as well as the other buildings in the so-called Campo dei Miracoli?the cathedral, the baptistery, and the Camposanto cemetery?are all built on what is essentially a former bog. Consequently, the subsoil is forever shifting and prone to flooding. When the architect (who remains unknown) projected the structure he failed to sufficiently account for the unstable terrain, and began to build what would be a 14,700 metric-ton tower of marble and limestone atop a mere three-meter deep foundation. The Tower of Pisa, in other words, was destined to tilt because it was flawed from the outset. When and why did the Tower come closest to toppling over? In 1838, a local architect named Alessandro della Gherardesca thought that it would be wise to excavate a catino [walkway] around the base. Workers promptly hit a subterranean water channel, the whole base of the campanile flooded, and the structure began to tilt anew after centuries of relative stability. The incident serves to illustrate a recurring theme?that is, most of those who have professed to want to "save" or "improve" the Tower of Pisa have been those who have come closest to toppling it. What made the 1934 attempt to stabilize the Tower so disastrous? To the Italian Fascists, the Tower of Pisa was an inappropriate symbol for a nation with imperial designs, and Mussolini ordered it shored up and stabilized. Not surprisingly, the remedy proved as brutal as Fascist politics?361 holes were bored into the foundation and pumped full with 90 tons of cement. The measure again shattered the Tower's hard-found equilibrium, but no one dared protest. As it happens, Mussolini owned the cement factory. What happened on September 6, 1995? Among engineers and architects involved in the most recent restoration the date has become known as "Black September." In the midst of works to install underground cables to anchor the campanile the structure suddenly lurched four millimeters to the south. The distance may appear a trifle, but in fact, it was theoretically enough to push the Tower over the edge. Prior to the most recent intervention what factors contributed to the Tower's risk of collapse? Undoubtedly the shifting terrain but also the structural stress on the deteriorating stone and marble. The Tower was less at risk of cleanly falling over than of buckling at points where the pressure was greatest and the stone weakest. Did Galileo [Galilei] ever conduct experiments from atop the Tower or is that a myth? There is no hard evidence to support the almost universally held claim. The myth first emerged as a result of the overripe imagination of Galileo's secretary and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani. The image of Galileo atop the Tower proved so compelling that nearly every subsequent biographer incorporated the myth, in various guises, as a pivotal event in the life of the scientist, and indeed, the whole history of modern science. By what method was the Tower stabilized in the 1990s? By a method known as soil extraction, or soil subsidence, in which earth was excavated from beneath the foundation on the north side in order to gently coax the structure back toward the perpendicular. As of today, what is the long-term prognosis for the Tower? Engineers responsible for the successful restoration effort estimate that the Tower will be stable for another 300 years, but bear in mind too that natural causes such as an earthquake (and Pisa is in a region of considerable seismic activity), could do in the Tower in an instant. Tell me about the decision to skew the cover and pages of the book. First of all, let me apologize for the havoc the book wreaks on ones bookshelf! However, the book, like the Tower, does manage to stand on its own, if just. The skewed format was the idea of the designers and marketing department at Simon & Schuster. In any other instance, I would have thought the idea preposterous, but for a book on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it reminds one just how skewed things can be. KEY DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE TOWER OF PISA 1173 Construction begins 1178 Construction is halted 1272 Construction resumes 1278 Construction is halted again 1298 The first commission to study the Tower's lean is convened 1370 Construction officially completed 1838 Architect Alessandro della Gherardesca excavates a walkway around the Tower, flooding the base of the campanile and destabilizing the structure 1934 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sanctions a plan to inject 90 tons of cement into 361 holes at the base, which nearly topples the Tower 1990 The Tower is closed to the public and the 17th commission to study the Tower's lean is convened 1995 During the installation of underground stabilizing cables the Tower nearly collapses 1999 Using a process known as soil extraction, engineers begin work on a long-term solution to promote the Tower's stability 2001 The Tower re-opens to the public.

First Trade, Trade Paperback, New

Details

WRIGHT, BETH S. (EDITOR). The Cambridge Companion To Delacroix. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2000. ISBN: 0521658896

240 pages. Serves as an introduction to one of the most important and most complex artists of the nineteenth century. Providing an overview of his life and career, this volume offers essays by leading authorities on the artist's pictorial practice, the stylistic range over classicism and Romanticism, his writings, both private diary notations and published articles, and his impact on modern aesthetics, among other topics. Designed to serve as an essential resource for students of French nineteenth-century art history, cultural history, and literature, The Cambridge Companion to Delacroix also provides a chronology of the artist's life, set into its political and cultural contexts, as well as a list of suggested further reading in the topic areas. The contents of this book is as follows: 1. Painting thoughts: an introduction to Delacroix Beth S. Wright; 2. Delacroix in his generation Alan B. Spitzer; 3. Delacroix and romanticism James H. Rubin; 4. Eug ne Delacroix and popular culture Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer; 5. Origins and colonies: Delacroix's Algerian Harem Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby; 6. 'A Science and an Art at Once': Delacroix's pictorial theory and practice Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu; 7. Delacroix's dialogue with the French classical tradition Dorothy Johnson; 8. Delacroix and modern literature Paul Joannides; 9. Delacroix as Essayist: writings on art Michele Hannoosh; 10. Painting/literature: the impact of Delacroix on aesthetic theory, art criticism, and poetics in mid-nineteenth-century France David Scott. Includes an Index. "The book is an indispensable tool for the scholar who needs perspective on Delacroix and his time." Nineteenth-Century French Studies Softcover. Brand new book.

[SW: (Key Words: Eugene Delacroix, Biography, French Artists, Aesthetics, Beth S. Wright, Alan B. Spitzer, James H. Rubin, Adolphe Thiers, Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu, Dorothy Johnson, Paul Joannides, Michele Hannoosh, David Scott, Art, 1848, Theophile Gautier, Theodore Gericault, Saint-Sulpice, George Gordon Noel Byron, Charles Baudelaire).]

Details