This book contains beautiful photographs of Hart's sculpture and wonderful essays. The copy I ordered from Amazon arrived only yesterday, and after leafing through it, I was stunned by an egregiously poor design choice by the publisher.

The full color photograph of "Ex Nihilo", perhaps Hart's most moving piece, is centered between 2 pages! Split down the middle by the binding! How in the world can a fine art book publisher do this ? Other art texts, National Geographic, even Playboy (for pity's sake!) publish large format photographs using a fold-out leaf. Yes, fold-out leaves are more likely to become torn, or detached with use; but the reader's enjoyment, not preservation concerns, should drive layout and design decisions.

I was also disappointed that no full color photos of the finished "Daughters of Odessa" were in the book. There are photographs of studies, and a b&w photo in the catalog raisonne, but the effect is not the same.

I probably will keep this book; but I certainly won't be buying an art book from this publisher again! If I had it to do over, I would check the book out from the library.

Hart's West Facade of National Cathedral on the subject of Creation is the most famous piece of American scupture. ("Liberty," after all, will always be French.) The name of this piece is "Ex Nihilo" -- from nothing. The book has a wonderful photograph of "Ex Nihilo." Of course, our local rag The New York Times published a full magazine-page copy of this picture with left and right reversed and artificial green-tinted coloring. Typical New York always-in-a-hurry carelessness. ------ The work itself is astonishing. Everything given, nothing held back or calculated to please a critic. All driven by faith. A return to what is meant by the term masterpiece. Hart's personal items and the items of religious expression are sampled with his own favorites. ----- Enjoy ! This is a sweet book.

This book offers readers a complete overview of the world's most well renowned sculptor. Frederick Hart, who passed away suddenly last month, August 1999, created such famous works as the "Three Soldier's Bronze Sculpture in the Washington Public Gardens," "El Nihilo," the three phase triangular scluptures over the entrance to the National Cathederal, in Washington D.C. Maybe the most controversal sculpture Mr. Hart completed, "El Nihilo," was featured in the movie "Devil's Advocate" and was depicted in a lured, and distastful manner. The Hart Foundation sued the production company of "Devil's Advocate," with Al Pacino, the Hart Foundation won it's legal suit, and a disclaimer was placed on all Devil's Advocate's videos disclosing the "El Nihilo" sculpture was not used with The Hart's Foundation approval. Frederick Hart also created and invented the art technology of "double embedded lucite sculpture." This process involved creating a three dimensional free form floating sculpture "floating" within the lucite sculpture itself. Anyone who has ever viewed one of Mr. Hart's three dimensional sculpture's, know the incredible beauty and art that lay within his limited production of sculptures. The book can not honestly show the amazing detail of the "three dimensional double imbedded process" that Mr. Hart created. He and his work will be forever remembered as the finest bronze and lucite sculptor in the world to date. This book is a tribute to his master creations, depiction of his artwork, and ultimately a truly inspirational attestment to one of the world's greatest artists of all time.

A great book useful to the general public on these unique and beautiful natural communities. Photographs are excellent for identification. I would like more descriptive information, but a great starting place for anyone who would like to learn more about these often abused and under-appreciated areas. Anyone who surveys for endangered and threatened species in the southeastern U.S. should have one.

The book features around 160 different sets of letterheads. Each set is usually completed by callingcards and envelopes, which can result in mind-boggling design-solutions. Quite often the callingcards are the real stars. In one example, metallic fibres are woven into the card, in another, the card is printed and cut as luggage check cards. The only disappointment is the quality of the printed photographs, as they are sometimes quite blurred (that keeps it from the fifth star). Otherwise a must!

An illuminating miniature on a legendary house that was almost destroyed by the New England hurricane of 1938 and succumbed to fire in 1973. It was NeutraÕs grandestÑand most unlikelyÑcommission: a summer house for a famous Rhode Island family on Fishers Island. John Nicholas Brown picked Neutra after seeing the MoMA exhibition on modern architecture that included the Lovell Health House. Neumann, a professor of architecture at Brown University, recently curated an exhibition on the house that may eventually be shown in LA. Meanwhile we can enjoy his entertaining account of how the patrician client and progressive architect corresponded and faced off, and the camel that resulted from the collaboration of this odd couple. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

I purchased this game the week it first shipped, though I wish I hadn't. For someone who has never played the original Marvel Superheroes RPG, this game may seem adequate, but its greatest strength which is its tremendous detail, is also its greatest weakness. The card based system is a joke and characters tend to die way to easy. I am happy to see that marvel took a lesson from the old Mayfair DC system and allowed a way for even weaker characters to stand a chance, but they over did it and anyone can kill anyone else if they want to bad enough without any thought to the plausibilty of the confrontation what so ever. EX: In the first game we ran, just to bug out the system, a player playing Electra beat the Juggernaut. I have talked with several others who have purchased this game and they had similar ideas. To anyone considering to buy, do your self a favor and scour your local garage sales to find a copy of the old TSR sytem, it'll cost less and is a lot more fun.

The Marvel Super Heroes Adventure game is part of TSR's Saga system, which is touted as being a diceless RPG. "DICELESS! ," you cry....yep, you heard me right, it's uses a special variant form of playing cards. I guess this is the Magic(tm) effect, in that all new games must be ground breaking and innovative, i.e. use some form of cards. Fortunately, this isn't always a bad thing, as it fits the nature of this product. TSR's old Marvel game was just a variant of it's Gamma World system, and it was an awkward fit at best. The Saga system seems to be a good match, as it provides for fast and fun play, more of a beer and pretzels RPG (just keep the beer away from the cards, please). Don't expect volumes of tables and modifyer charts, 'cause this is not a game for rule-lawyering; Characters only have four main attributes, experience is determined by the number of cards you are allowed to hold in your hand, and most everything based upon the Narrator's (aka DM) judgement calls. My only major quibble is how little you get with this boxed set: The rule book, a quite slim colection of stats for some major Marvel heroes and villains, and the deck of cards. It would have been nice to have a larger collection of stats, but at least those included are the classic versions of Marvel favorites, except for Wolverine, who is presented in his more current non-adamantium form. Overall, this is a nice little game, and is great for those gamers looking for a light bit of gaming, and for those new to the field who would like an introduction to the new world of non-traditional RPGs. Now, if you pardon me, It's clobberin' time....

I think many of the early reviews on this game came immediately after people purchased the game. Better to play Marvel Super Heroes than just to read it and dismiss it as overly simplistic. MSH concentrates on roleplaying, not roll playing. The SAGA system does an excellent job of conveying comic-book-style storytelling without the burdensome mechanics of previous superhero RPGs. Give it a shot! You won't be sorry!