God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

Customer Reviews:

Just Wonderful.......2007-07-13

My dad teaches Sunday School and was looking for this book to incorporate into his lesson plans. I found it here at Amazon and fell in love with this book. Absolutely wonderful to read and very profound. Exceptional!

Historical Preservation - Community Backbone.......2007-06-10

The title says it all: "Trombones" represents the preservation of the history of the community backbone of prayer, persistence, and strength. The poetry gives some insight to the suffering of the elders, and speaks to the continuing fight for the full parity of the AfricanAmerican community in a country that was literally built upon the bleeding, sweaty backs of my ancestors.

Amazon is to be commended for participating in this historical preservation of a works that I would recommend as mandatory reading for generations to come - regardless of religion, gender, or color.

God's Trombones: Poems That Galvanize the Soul.......2007-04-25

My soul is galvanized everytime I hear or read James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones. I have directed student perfomances of this deeply moving African American text. "The Crucifixion," for example, tells the story of how Jesus Christ, my Lord, my Savior,my Friend, suffered death on an old cross so that I might have an opportunity to be more sensitive to the hurting. The "Prodigal Son" urges me to experience and, thus understand, that I must live with a redemptive consiousness. And, of course, I am compelled to understand, through the poem "Go Down Death" this reality: God does call His children home. Those who have suffered "long in the vineyard" are deserving of rest. For sure, God's Trombones is a poetic tribute to an experience that is Christian and African American. I thank James Welson Johnson for creating this poetic masterpiece. Let's continue to read it; let's perform it. Let's live within the context of the spirituality of the voice. Amen!

Unfamiliar Harmony.......2007-03-15

While James Weldon Johnson's theology is not always orthodox ("God thought and thought" - who could put a new thought in God's mind? unless it was God and, then, God would not be God - this insight compliments of E.V. Hill in his sermon "When Was God At His Best?"), JWJ's poetry and, especially, his Preface displays the harmonious beauty of a long tradition of African American preaching not generally known or appreciated outside of African American circles. If one really wants to become familiar with and, indeed, edified by the godly reaching of E.V. Hill (now deceased), Fred Luter, Tony Evans, Robert Smith and a host of unknowns who preach with substance and, sometimes, in the "whoop"ing style, then, Weldon's book is a must read. May Christianity never lose what God has brought forth in a substantial style which stirs heart, mind and soul.

A Priceless Cultural Artifact.......2007-02-28

When I was a youngster, we all knew of these poems. "The Creation" was, in fact, a standard part of the 10th-grade English curriculum and was one of the most often selected pieces for what was then called "dramatic recitation." (This was in Oklahoma, Alabama and South Carolina in the late 1950's and early 1960's.)

Now I cannot find anyone much under the age of 50 who has ever heard of them. This is but one of a great many tragic cultural losses of our time.

The poems evoke those trombone-like voices of Black preachers ringing with their simple themes, imaginative colorations, and powerful deliveries contrasting the pain of mortal life with the glory and joy of the eternal one. With their plaints and affirmations, their truths and contradictions, they embody a crucial aspect of the American heritage.

Moving? "Powerful" hardly expresses it. When I first acquired the book, I read to my wife the poem, "Go Down Death -- A Funeral Sermon." We were in the car on the way home from the bookstore. We had to stop at the mall for her to make a purchase, and she had to wait in the car while she dried her eyes before going in.

These poems cannot be allowed to be forgotten. They just cannot.

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Indispensable
Becoming Pound
this is da geeza
A great work of lit. criticism with a pinch of history
Writing on Pound worth the grapple

The Pound Era
Hugh Kenner
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520024273

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable.......2007-08-28

Intimidated by Pound's Cantos, I picked up Kenner's book in hopes of a pony. In fact, there are more text specific companions (see my other reviews) but this work provides a fascinating, invaluable overview of the modernists and their work. From the opening encounter with Henry James to Pound's last days in New Jersey and Italy, Kenner walks by the poet's side through the Cantos and his career. The sections on Wyndham Lewis, Buckminster Fuller, Clifford Douglas, and T. S. Eliot are illuminating, but so are the explorations of more obscure writers like Ernest Fenellosa, Guido Cavalcanti, and Henri Gaudier. The author's knowledge of the world, like Pound's, seems almost limitless. Readers looking for nods to contemporary literary theory may be disappointed since there's little queer, feminist, Marxist, or Lacanian critique, but as a conventional and weighty glimpse at influences and allusions in the Cantos, it's excellent. Reading Kenner is probably a lot like being in a lecture class with him. However dull it may be on the cutting edge, the sheer glare of brilliance and erudition leaves you dazzled and eager to go the original source for more light.

Becoming Pound.......2005-12-16

For years I didn't get Pound, and I once asked a friend if the Emperor had no clothes. "No, but to get Pound you have to become Pound," she said. That remains one of the truest things I've heard about Pound, and about the modern poetic he inspired. From the brave spirits who hope to apprehend his writing, Pound demands a total commitment to his manner of thinking, his myriad languages, his vast reading, his eccentric economic/social theories, his storehouse of memories, and the evolution of his ideas over nearly a century. What he brought to poetry was the idea that poems aren't ornamented expressions of deep feeling, but precise instruments for exploring politics, religion, history, economics, science and just about everything human.

Hugh Kenner came closer to being Pound than anyone (though Peter Makin gives him a good run for his money), and "The Pound Era" isn't so much a work of literary criticism as it is an intricate daybook, or maybe a modern novel, on coming to terms with the demands Pound makes on a reader. It's a one-of-a-kind study that should be read and re-read by anyone even half-interested in Pound's achievement. But it also (to my mind at least) shares some of the Master's flaws as Kenner makes great, sometimes showy, occasionally mannered paratactic leaps between seemingly unrelated details to convey a picture of Pound's age. It's well worth looking past the stylistic excesses though for Kenner's unparalleled explication of one of the best known and least understood 20th-century poets.

this is da geeza.......2003-09-15

not so much an ruk, as a demonstration of squid's panoramic influence on modernism, kenner's book remains one of da mostest ighly praised exemplars of american literary criticism. conveyin as much biography as analysis-and evun more cultural istory, kenner's sui generis ang leaps from topic to tale to close readin, wiv little effort at transition, in an angular act of synthesis dat demands acts of cultural leap-frogging much dig squid's own cantos (though mercifully less strenuous). kenna offers suggestive accounts not only of squid and modernism, but of da liberatin role of chinese poetry, translation, greek syntax, istory and economics, wyndham lewis, eliot, enry james, williams, and da objectivists. kenna imself savvily refrains from attemptin to define "a squid tradition," coz he needn't. squid imself was-famously-the mostest important literary taxonomist and canon-maker of american modernism; and dis book, wiv its convincin accounts of da almost servile fawnings paid to squid by da igh modernists, shows why squid was so central: he was at once da mostest advanced and deeply traditional literary reada of is era. kenna shows ow fa squid, "all poets were contemponareous," and though few could claim is readerly breadf, squid's eclectic cultural borrowings (a should i say thefts) expanded da palette to include influences wiv which recent avant-gardists is only beginnin to reckon. indeed mostest of squid's influence as bin simplified to is emphasis on da desired objectivity of poetic lingo, or, as williams redefined it, to da notion dat a poem is "a machine made out of lingo." shared by da objectivists, and, more complexly, by da lingo poets, dis linguistic outlook as become one of da crucial trends in experimental poetics.

A great work of lit. criticism with a pinch of history.......2002-08-17

This is an impressive read. I came to it at just the right time in my life. I had been reading the poems of Marianne Moore and Buckminster Fuller as well as studying Ancient Greek. This is a dense but ultimately very rewarding book. It incorporates passages of troubadour lyric and Greek and name-drops a lot of historical characters with which you may or may not be familiar. For those interested in Pound and his times, I highly recommend it. For those unsure, check out the excerpts that Amazon provides. This is not everyone's cup of tea. But, as I said, I came to this at the right time in my life.

Writing on Pound worth the grapple.......1999-10-18

I should say that I'm only 200 pages into this book, but I simply wanted to relate how steady it has been to now in its blend of chronicle, elucidation, and detail. Particularly impressive is how Kenner uses an often very dense (Jamesian, Pound-ish) style of commentary to achieve this. I glanced through a copy of his selected essays (`Historical Fictions') and was disappointed to see that in them it often fell flat, whereas here it flows. Strong works of criticism often seem to fail with first intrusion of any flourishings of "style". I think that part of the revelation of Eliot the critic was his careful push away from a certain weightiness of thought while retaining depth and the critic's persona (which until then might have been all the rage, but for Eliot must have been a conscious decision, and is all the better for it in contrast with many of the zigzagging claims and stances that have come in the interim since). In critique it is the thinking that counts.

Pound oozes style, but his thought is what breaks the waves.

There is a sentence that one doesn't know what to do with. Does it express what it should? It is mine and I would say it needs to be modified. This is a 500 page book and it has had lapses so far. But like Pound's poetics, the stretching into the peripherals of Kenner's way of writing wins dividends and he wanders into prose critical summations complete with all the strength of good poetry.

The "Era" of the title tells you that this is also a book of people and the events around them, and Kenner paints the literary picture in continuously brief and slightly worn strokes. Here he can sometimes get a little misty, perhaps even dewy. A wide range of references will tend to rush away from the events given the slightest notice. But this is Pound's era, and how else are we to see the man? I shall read on and discover.

Average customer rating:

Invaluable

GREAT TO HAVE IT, BUT OO-LA-LA! SOME POOR TRANSLATIONS!

The Random House book of twentieth-century French poetry: With translations by American and British poets

Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Continental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry: From Nerval to Valery in English Translation

The Voice of Robert Desnos: Selected Poems

The Penguin Book of French Poetry: 1820-1950; With Prose Translations (Penguin Classics)

Some Ether: Poems

ASIN: 0394521978

Customer Reviews:

Invaluable.......2001-02-02

Vintage, the publisher, should feel deep, dark, spooky shame for letting this remarkable book go out of print. The reviewer below is misguided in his or her belief that there are more than a few clunkers among the translations: hogwash. Wilbur's rendition of "Le Pont Mirabeau" is an exceptionally musical version of an exceptionally musical poem, and approximates beautifully the Whistleresque mood. To critique Pound's translation is like saying "Damn the Moon, it's full of holes." Sure, but its the Moon. On the whole, this book gets it right, offering an interesting selection of poets and translators (just as there is more than one kind of poet, so too are there different, and equally valid, forms of translation). Seek it out till Bertlesman come to their multinational senses.

GREAT TO HAVE IT, BUT OO-LA-LA! SOME POOR TRANSLATIONS!.......1998-08-16

Paul Auster chose his poems well, and the bilingual presentation, format, and ordering of the poets are all clear and easy to follow. It's wonderful to have this access to modern French poetry in English. There are two problems, however: First, there are hardly any women poets (I think 1 out of 50 - the unrelenting masculine viewpoint gets tedious, like being trapped in a cigar-smoke-filled men's room). And second, some of the translations are graceless and inaccurate. Mr. Auster's secondary goal was to choose among already-existing translations by American and British poets. Many of these ruin the mood, parallelisms and imagery of the poems. For instance, Apollinaire's "Mirabeau Bridge" is tortured into English rhyme, destroying all subtlety. Milosz's "November Symphony" has had a meaningless name change to "Strophes" by Ezra Pound, who, if he was going to re-name it, should have called it "Truncations", since he seems to have gotten tired and omitted the last third of the poem. All in all, though, I'm very pleased to have it.

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A Great Collection
My Twentieth Century

Twentieth-Century American Poetry
Dana Gioia , David Mason , and Meg Schoerke
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0072400196

Book Description

With the end of the 1900s, the time has come for a thorough assessment of one hundred years of poetry - from the widely acclaimed to the subtly influential - and with an eye to the importance and meaning of poetry in America.

Compiled by three poets and poetry scholars - including 2002 American Book Award Winner Dana Gioia - this anthology presents American poetry across the twentieth century from Stephen Crane to Kevin Young. The collected works are arranged according to the major movements in American poetry, offering a valuable teaching resource for American Literature and Poetry courses.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Collection.......2006-02-13

The other reviewer of this particular anthology mentions some poetic giants that have been left out of the anthology, and I agree some of those poets should have been put in this anthology, but that being said, you can't have EVERY major poet put in an anthology, it would just become too large and too cumbersome to publish.

The editors of this collection give reasons in their introduction for why they've left out certain authors. All that being said.

This is a fantastic collection, and for someone who is just learning to appreciate Modern (Capital M) poets, this is a great place to start. Book is organized into specific poetic genre and styles and each work is prefaced with a small biogrpahy of the authors life and their work. I would reccomend it to anyone looking for getting into this particular genre of poetry. Cheers.

My Twentieth Century.......2005-12-28

Contemporary poetry's a notoriously fractious field. No one knows that better than Dana Gioia, who's worked hard to make a century of innovation and experiment conform to his idea of poetry as a popular, traditional, metrical art that just needs saving from the eggheads.

Gioia's New Formalist allegiances could have resulted in an interesting anthology, one that leavens the mavericks like Stein, Pound, Williams, etc.--folks in no danger of being erased from the story of Modern American poetry--with worthy figures of a more traditional bent (Weldon Kees, say) who risk being written out because they didn't rock the poetic boat as hard.

But an anthology that excludes key poets like Jack Kerouac, Ted Berrigan, Kenneth Koch, Alice Notley, Charles Bernstein, Bernadette Mayer, Clark Coolidge or Leslie Scalapino while finding room for Billy Collins, Kim Addonizio, Ted Kooser, and Linda Pastan shows that it's missed the main thrust of U.S. poetry over the last half century. The historical overviews add to the confusion by lumping together aesthetic tendencies or movements that have only tenuous connections with one another. The hugely influential poets of the New York School, for instance, get folded into Surrealism and Deep Image poetry under the arbitrary heading "American Internationalism" (when's the last time you heard anyone debating the poetic merits of American Internationalism? Or for that matter talking about Deep Image?), while New Formalism shares pride of place with Language poetry in a section marked simply "Contemporary Voices." That's kind of like shelving Mariah Carey with the Sex Pistols and calling it "Contemporary Pop."

I think the idea is to present American poetry as a chorus of diverse individual voices, relatively untrammeled by theories or schools. The bios that introduce the poets spend a remarkable amount of time talking about their marital status, college degrees, mentors, publication histories, and work life while saying surprisingly little about the roots of their poetics (except in cases where Gioia doesn't like the poetics, in which case he's not above a snarky aside. Re: Ron Silliman--"After high school, his education was sporadic, a curious fact in the life of a poet whose theories seemingly demand an academic audience." Ouch!). But the effect is that all the poets end up sounding about the same--well-educated, more or less married, happy information workers seemingly spit out of identical social backgrounds and winning interchangeable honors (this despite the anthology's scrupulous inclusion of minority voices).

In some ways the anthology reminds me of a more politic and cunning version of Philip Larkin's infamous Oxford Anthology of Twentieth-Century Verse--a conservative stab at reclaiming the twentieth century for the supposedly traditional literary values of craft, polish, formal mastery and judicious introspection. I think the genie's out of the proverbial bottle on this one though. America's grown too shaggy, druggy, political, ornery and just plain weird to quite fit the silhouette Gioia's chalked out for it here. And for anyone who cares about where U.S. poetry might go in the 21st century, that's a very good thing.

Heart to Heart : New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art

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Amazing!
Getting to the Heart of Art

Heart to Heart : New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art
Jan Greenberg
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810943867

Book Description

What do we feel when we look at a great work of art/ What does a poet feel/ Heart to Heart offers an original way to approach poetry and art—with new works by distinguished American poets, specially commissioned for this book by editor Jan Greenberg. Prompted by paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by American artists working in the 20th century, these poems lend a new meaning to “art appreciation” and make each page of Heart to Heart an exciting discovery.

Join such poets as Jane Yolen, Nancy Willard, X. J. Kennedy, Naomi Shihab Nye, David Mura, and Angela Johnson as they reveal a personal, heartfelt response to works by Thomas Hart Benton, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Grandma Moses, Faith Ringgold, Man Ray, Georgia O'Keeffe, and many others. Whether the poems are playful, challenging, tender, mocking, humorous, sad, or sensual, each work of art, seen through the eyes of a poet, allows readers to look at the world with new insight.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing!.......2006-04-22

An amazing work of art! The poets are well matched with the art they chose and the poems are good enough to give you chills. A must for any serious collector of contemporary poetry.

Getting to the Heart of Art.......2003-03-28

This is a great book for artists and non artists alike. It is a useful tool for any age group in understanding visual imagery. The poetry is done in response to art that ranges in style and media, giving the reader/viewer a wide exposure to the arts.

The poerty is crisp, interesting and meaningful to contemporary culture without being trite or overly stylized.

Book Description

The Nobel Prize-winning poet's most popular work

When it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. W. S. Merwin's incomparable translation faces the original Spanish text. Now in a black-spine Classics edition, this book stands as an essential collection that continues to inspire lovers and poets around the world.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful!.......2007-01-17

This book was very beneficial as I translated some of the poems myself. It allowed me to compare differences in the two translations and choose which was most accurate.

Love poems for all of us.......2007-01-09

Our Spanish is weak, mine much weaker than hers, but the language speaks, the tone of the language sings, as we sit on a beach and share these beatiful poems, in words we understand, and sounds we listen to.

One of my favorite writers.......2006-08-15

In this duel language edition, the voice is soft, sincere, and refreshing. His language borders on a passion that seems to rouse the senses like skydiving, or waiting for first rain. I recommend this book and all his books to the poetry reader.

the most romantic book of love poems ever written.......2006-04-07

perhaps this is the most romantic and most beautiful book of love poems ever written. every word, every stanza is so easily read, so quickly understood, like an arrow to the heard. give this gift to your lover and they will never forget it.

Beautiful, wrenching poetry.......2004-07-30

A beautiful gift for a lover. Perfect Valentine's Day gift or some other romantic moment. Draw a bath for them, light a candle, pour some wine, and sit and read them some of these often torrid poems. You will thank me later! MUCH later!

First Light: Mother And Son Poems: Mother & Son Poems: A Twentieth-Century American Selection

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First Light: Mother And Son Poems: Mother & Son Poems: A Twentieth-Century American Selection

Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156311364

Book Description

The first anthology of its kind, bringing together a diverse selection of new and well-known modern American poets writing on the theme of mother-son relationships; with works by eighty poets, including Sylvia Plath, e. e. cummings, William Carlos Williams, and Langston Hughes.

From Modernism to Postmodernism: American Poetry and Theory in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)

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From Modernism to Postmodernism: American Poetry and Theory in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)
Jennifer Ashton
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521855047

Book Description

In this overview of twentieth-century American poetry, Jennifer Ashton examines the relationship between modernist and postmodernist American poetics. Ashton moves between the iconic figures of American modernism - Stein, Williams, Pound - and developments in contemporary American poetry to show how contemporary poetics, specially the school known as language poetry, have attempted to redefine the modernist legacy. She explores the complex currents of poetic and intellectual interest that connect contemporary poets with their modernist forebears. The works of poets such as Gertrude Stein and John Ashbery are explained and analysed in detail. This major account of the key themes in twentieth-century poetry and poetics develops important ways to read both modernist and postmodernist poetry through their similarities as well as their differences. It will be of interest to all working in American literature, to modernists, and to scholars of twentieth-century poetry.

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In this ambitious overview of twentieth-century American poetry, Jennifer Ashton examines the relationship between modernist and postmodernist American poetics. Ashton moves between the iconic figures of American modernism - Stein, Williams, Pound - and developments in contemporary American poetry to show how contemporary poetics, specially the school known as language poetry, have attempted to redefine the modernist legacy. She explores the complex currents of poetic and intellectual interest that connect contemporary poets with their modernist forebears. The works of poets such as Gertrude Stein and John Ashbery are explained and analysed in detail. This major new account of the key themes in twentieth-century poetry and poetics develops important new ways to read both modernist and postmodernist poetry through their similarities as well as their differences. It will be of interest to all working in American literature, to modernists, and to scholars of twentieth-century poetry.

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A Profile of Twentieth-Century American Poetry

Manufacturer: Southern Illinois University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0809313499

Book Description

Seven chronologically arranged essays—each covering roughly a decade from 1908 through 1988—plus two special-focus essays on black and female poets, an introduction by Ed Folsom, and a preface by editors Jack Myers and David Wojahn, outline the critical, creative, aesthetic, and cultural forces at work in the American poetry of this century. Several contributors, including Michael Heller, Richard Jackson, and Jonathan Holden, have recently published important book-length critical studies in their essay area; all have published well-regarded collections of their own poetry.

Book of 101 Books, The: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century

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Fantastic
The photographer's photography book
Good reference, but not comprehensive
Books as art.
A Perfect Book

Book of 101 Books, The: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century
Vince Aletti , Richard Benson , May Castleberry , Jeffrey Fraenkel , and Daido Moriyama
Manufacturer: Roth Horowitz, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0967077443
Release Date: 2001-08-02

Book Description

The history of the photographic book goes back well more than a century; the medium of photography and the book format were understood very early on to relate to each other on both technical and aesthetic levels. The examples of truly great combinations of photographic image and text, great design and typography bound together as books are numerous, and make up an impressive artistic, social, and documentary statement of the 20th century. Writer and rare book expert Andrew Roth has selected for this volume a group of 101 of the best photography books ever published: books that bring all of the elements of great bookmaking together to create, ultimately, a thing of beauty, a work of art. Mostly made up of publications in which the photographs were meant to be seen in book form, as opposed to the book being merely a repository of images, this list includes many artists and titles that will be familiar to the collector, but also not a few surprises. Chronologically, the first book is Volume One of Edward Curtis's seminal 1907 The North American Indian, the last is David LaChapelle's LaChapelle Land from 1996, and in between are books by Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott, Atget and Brassai, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, and many other seminal photographers from all over the world. Each book in the catalogue receives a double page spread including publication information, several image spreads, and a short text about it. The Book of 101 Books, however, is far more than simply an annotated and illustrated catalogue. Six important new essays on a variety of related topics from respected scholars, critics, and artists are included as well: here you will find Richard Benson on the history of printing techniques, Shelley Rice on the societal significance of photography books, May Castleberry on reprints, exhibitions, and keeping books alive for the public; Daido Moriyama on his personal memories of making his classic Bye Bye Photography, Dear, Neville Wakefield on the particular attributes of one of the most recent books in this group: Richard Princeis 1995 Adult Comedy Action Drama, and Jeffrey Fraenkel on the myriad perils of publishing photography books. The catalogue entries themselves are written by the well known critics Vince Aletti and David Levi Strauss. Taken together, the depth and beauty of these essays and images makes The Book of 101 Books both an essential reference and an aesthetically compelling object. In order to insure safe delivery for this item we can only ship Federal Express 3rd Day. An additional charge of $25.00 will be added to your purchase.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2007-03-10

There many good books about the history of photography, there some excellent books about the history of photography and there are a few fantastic books about the history of photography--this is one of the fantastic books. Well written, expertly designed and beautifully printed. This book is a classic.

The photographer's photography book.......2002-10-03

Now this is something special! As a publication designer I can appreciate the care and thought that went into this stunning and unique book. Andrew Roth, in the introduction, explains his brilliant idea, 'The basis for my selection was simple. Foremost, a book had to be a thoroughly considered production; the content, the mise-en-page, choice of paper stock, reproduction quality, text, typeface, binding, jacket design, scale - all of the elements had to blend together to fit naturally within the whole'. I would agree with all of that (I have eight of the 101) and also his selection of the photographic books which mostly exemplify what he was searching for.

Not all of these criteria apply to each book though. The author has wisely included all the covers to his selection and I don't think there is a single book jacket shown that I would class as excellence in design, that is, the title and image working together as one to sum up the contents for a potential purchaser. Mostly they are the usual publishers' marketing department output, a single photo or image with some (bland) typography added. Strangely the cover to 'The Book Of 101 Books' is rather dull and typographically conservative.

Another area where, I think, many of the books fall short of the author's criteria is the lack of captioning. Many of the reproduced spreads clearly just have the photos on the page with no information for the reader. Why do publishers (and possibly even the photographers) think that beautiful, imaginative and stimulating photos don't need some textual explanation on the same page? I recently bought 'Dream Street' by Eugene Smith, an excellent collection of photos taken in 1955 of life in Pittsburgh, virtually all of the photos make me ask "What's going on here" and I have to constantly turn to the back of the book to read a caption, even more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for them. This lack of a caption on the same page as the photo seems a common fault with many photographic books.

The author says his goal was not to compile a selection of rare or precious books, just great ones and the 101 chosen reflect that vision, starting in 1907, with the twenty volume 'The North American Indian' and ending in 1996 with David LaChapelle's 'LaChapelle Land', these two books are a world apart but nevertheless have elements in common that the author was searching for. The other ninety-nine books show the amazing diversity that a photographer's eye, light and chemicals can do to the world. As well as the spreads from the books there are six essays dealing with photographic book publishing, all of them interesting and thought provoking, Richard Benson (no relation) writes a very succinct explanation of book printing techniques over the last hundred years.

Handling this sumptuous book, turning over the pages of the beautiful paper it is printed on, looking at the images (printed with a screen well over two hundred dots to the inch) it is a good example of why books will not vanish in this expanding digital age.

BTW, another reviewer has commented that 'The Book Of 101 Books' is one of the best designed books of recent years, beautiful as it is I don't think I would go that far and I'll not be adding it to my Listmania 'Ten of my favorite well-designed books'. Editorially I think there are a couple of errors, firstly, in the bibliographic details there is no mention of a books pagination, and secondly, all the text about a book is in one paragraph, clearly a mistake when some of the pieces are several hundred words long. I also think the layouts have an annoying fault, each of the 101 books starts on a spread and the left-hand page displays the books cover within a text wrap of two columns, this second column frequently looks a line short because the writer's initials are ranged right on the last line instead of occupying a new line or even hanging them in the margin, in bold face, for instance.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Good reference, but not comprehensive.......2002-05-25

This book is undoubtedly a good reference, but you should not consider it a comprehensive one.

With a decidedly American slant, the book ignores the rich photography cultures of Japan, Russian constructivists and even of Europeans after 1945. Even on the topics which the book does cover, there are a few glaring ommissions. But I'm still glad to see this book come out and the author certainly makes no claims that the books list is a comprehensive one, just a seminal one.

Books as art........2002-01-24

The amount of impact a single photo can have is well known. What hasn't been as clearly shown before is how much power collections of photographs can (and have) had. The gathering together of photographs related by theme or time or geography or other subject makes an artistic statement of its own. You have to love books as much as photographs, and be open to the idea that the making of books is an art form, to love this book.

A Perfect Book.......2002-01-12

This is an extraordinary book, both for its content and design. The book provides a wonderful view of 20th-century photography and photographic books, reproducing several double-page spreads (at reduced size) from a well-chosen list of 101 great photographic books. There is so much to see and think about here.

The catalog entries, luminously written by Vince Aletti and David Levi Strauss, provide a fairly detailed description, history, and analysis of each of the photographic books. And there are several essays on the history and techniques of photographic publishing; these essays are informative, smart, learned.

This is one of the best-designed books in recent years. The typography, layout, and printing quality are just perfect, at the very highest level of excellence. Andrew Roth and Jerry Kelly did the book design; Sue Medlicott supervised the printing which was done superbly at the Stamperia Valdonega.

In the last few months, I have seen 3 extraordinary visual books that powerfully demonstrate just how wonderful books can be:
(1)The Book of 101 Books by Andrew Roth and colleagues
(2)The Atlas of Oregon (2nd edition) by William Loy, Stuart Allen, Aileen R. Buckley, and James E.Meacham
(3)Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870-2000: The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, by Robert Flynn Johnson and Donna Stein, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

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