These are a collection of marvelous essays Marjorie Perloff has edited. The scope of Cage is seemingly immense, the implications of his work has touched varigated corners and crevices,abandoned places: the music world, the world of poetry,conceptual art, performance art, mushroom enthusiasts,opera, and other synergistic art forms we have no label for yet. Perloff herself chooses the influence of Duchamp to discuss, the ends of things of the Western canon was a frightening yet fascinating point in the last century. And Cage always had done everything,like Duchamp with an element of the lighthearted at work. There are analysis here as well as seasoned music essayist Jann Pasler's discussion on Cage's "Composition in Retrospect" a 1981 mesostic text. Pasler helps explain what this figuritivly complex yet disarmingly word play composition means. Cage wrote many of his most important works in this structural form. And his own "Overpopulation and Art" is included here, asa a guiding means of response to these participants. This is as close as Cage gets to social and political/environmental reflection, you will not recognize Cage here. Herbert Lindenberger is a well known writer in the cloistered world of Opera and he admirably reflects on Cage's one and only Opera "Europeras" and the Aesthics that may emit itself from that varigated and multidimensional work. Although aesthtics in its traditionally bound demeanor was always and remained a by-product of the Cage edifice, here in this opera he lets other impart their aesthtic desires by allowing singers to choose their own arias to perform. Also Cage scholar Joan Retallack(who has also an impressive series of interviews with Cage) speaks here on "Poetics of a Complex Realism", and this refers to the American dimension of Cage, a topic seldom discussed. This refers to the Trancendentalists tradition of social rebellion although quite passive in retrospect. Writers like Thoreau were important to Cage. Cage activism points in mysterious and undramatic ways. The making of meaning through performance and collaboration was what Cage had valued and he contributed that legacy to the last century. Artifacts of art need continuous nurturing,scholarly explication, regular performance and tried and tested aesthetic canons to be attenuated. Rather within this insecure world, Cage's hope was to nurture a tradition of performers,of communicators equipped with a conceptual fredom of expressive means through a varied and interdisciplinary world which didn't seem to depend on any one particular discipline or technique, as the rigours of composition or, playing the violin, or writing symmetrical verse.

I have just translated this book into Japanese. It took me no less than 2 years. As is well known, the main achievement of John R. Mott is that he promoted the eccumenical movement and paved the road to WCC (World Christian Council). During my translation, I found the parts of World War I and the Russian revolution the most provocative. It cannot be said that this book is easy to read, partly because the author intended to make this book the decisive biography (a few had been written before), utilizing a great amount of material. However, this book is not only extremely valuable as a document of the Christian Ecumenism but we can get a new perspective of the history of USA and the world from the late 19th century till 1950s.

This book tells the story of the earliest parts of the birth of our nation in language a fourth or fifth grader can understand. Speaking as a fifth grade teacher, I would love to have a copy of this book for every student. It is gripping and engrossing, not to mention historically accurate. Who knew what perils and adventures John Smith endured before he ever came to North America? While this book is written for children, I learned many things I did not know. I also got a real feel for the times. John Smith, by Charles P. Graves, takes a topic, usually treated with textbook banality and makes it the true adventure story it was. -Nancy LaRue

At last, John Curry has a book in print worthy of his art. Ms. Junker has suceeded in paying a noble yet sadly overdue tribute to this unique and often neglected artist. Curry's paintings capture the emotion and natural force of American scenes in a way that was very much his own. Works like "Tornado over Kansas" and the scene of John Brown in "A Tragic Prelude" embody some of the greatest expressions of conflict to be found in American art.

Was very useful for what I was doing, and I enjoyed the reading.

As a profesional liturgist and choir director, this is a very welcome addition to my personal library. It contains easy arrangements of many popular church standards. It's a useful tool for many denominations. Simple enough for children's choirs to understand, yet true to the composers' original intentions.

I had this book when I was a student at Temple. It made understanding Judo really easy. The book rocks!

If you're writing a paper on Japanese Internment Camps, this book is really good. It superbly defines the generation gap of Japanese-Americans during the 1940's. In addition, the foreward to this book is well-written and very helpful. This book helps show what happened to the Japanese during World War 2.

Angel Rama is peharps one of the most important critics of Latin America. The Lettered city is the perfect example. This book, written to explain the influence of the intelectuals of Latin America in the development of culture, is one of the brightest essays I've ever red. I fully recommend this book to anyone who would like to approach to Latin American culture, literature or history.

Charles Wyatt's book is something to be read aloud. These superbly crafted stories are both absorbing and lyrical; there's nothing flimsy or gimmicky about them. "Ghosts" and "Listening to Mozart" were especially well done--deep but not without comical flavor. Wyatt's character never takes himself too seriously--he intuitively seems to understand that the biggest events in life happen regardless of his plans. I sincerely hope that Wyatt writes another book.