For a long time, Tolkien scholarship has had an uneven character. This isn't the time or place to explain why or give examples, but the appearance of this book, along with the recently published _Tolkien's Legendarium_, suggests that things may be changing and for the better. This collection of a dozen essays, all written by top-notch Tolkien scholars, possesses the highest degree of intellectual rigor and operates within a genuinely scholarly framework of interpretation. (You won't find any fan fluff here!)

The essays may be loosely divided into three main sections. The first comprises essays on the poetics and sources of Tolkien's fiction. The standouts here are Sullivan's "Tolkien the Bard", which suggests and that Tolkien's style may be best understood as an application of oral poetry and orally told story to written medium, and "The Dragon-Lore of Middle-Earth", which takes a close look at what Tolkien took from medieval (and specifically Norse) dragon stories and how he specifically adapted the material to his own purpose. The articles on Tolkien's verse and on his use of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_is also quite insightful.

The second section tends to be 'comparative' and places Tolkien and his work in juxtaposition with other authors. The most intriguing article here is one that compares Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories" with the Sir Philip Sydney's "In Defence of Poetry". What is so exciting about this is not so much the comparison of Tolkien's 'story theory' with that of Sydney, but the analysis of how, for Tolkien, creative writing-- and indeed the very act of subcreation itself-- is gendered masculine. Other articles touch on Tolkie and Lewis, _The Hobbit_ and _King Solomons Mines_, and Tolkien and Milton.

The third and final section is a more eclectic hodgepodge of articles on different subjects, ranging from Tolkien's legacy (and in particular, the ways in which female fantasy-writers have adopted, adapted, and responded to the overwhelming and masculine "shadow of the Ring"), to the elegeic quality of Tolkien's fiction and its concernw ith loss, to the nature of evil, to Tolkien's literary treatment of trees. Of all of these, the last, written by Verlyn Flieger is the most illuminating and advances the most excitin argument. Flieger carefully notes that the representation of trees and forests in _Lord of the Rings_ is *not* so universally favorable and sympathetic. By juxtaposing the Old Forest (and Old Man Willow) with Fangorn Forest (and the Ents), Flieger shows that this issue is more complex, ambiguous, and filled with internal tensions than has generally been assumed. It is, perhaps, the most important essay in this collection-- and may represent Flieger's finest work yet as a Tolkien scholar.

This is an academic book, published by a smaller press, so it's got a hefty pricetag on it-- but it's an outstanding collection of new Tolkien scholarship and I unqualifiedly recommend it to any serious Tolkien scholars. Those with an aversion to scholarly inquiry (a la _Tolkien's Legendarium_) and who prefer more fannish modes of discourse(e. g._Visualizing Middle-Earth_), however, might want to give this a pass.

A book I come back to again and again for its photographs of beautiful quilts. The beautiful applique quilt on its cover is worth the price of the book. Also a good source of dating fabric. Very inspirational book. It's interesting to read about the quilters and see their photographs alongside of their quilts.

So you didn't play much baseball as a kid. Or, maybe you played so much baseball that you know too much to work with your inexperienced kids without loosing your patience.

This handbook has it all. How do you get a 4 year old to throw a ball effectively? Not an easy task for someone with a short attention span an no idea what you are talking about. Swing a bat level? Why bother when you can hack at the ball like a woodsman? Tips, techniques, and pictures either teach a parent what is important, or remind him or her what they have known for so long they have forgetten to pass it along.

These are just a couple of examples of the problems I faced in teaching baseball to my kids and areas the handbook was helpful. From catching, throwing and hitting for the youngest of players, all the way through to strategy, baserunning and conditioning for older players. This book will help you get them started on the right track and help them help themselves when they are old enough to read on their own.

Talk yourself into coaching your kid's team so you can be sure they get quality instruction - only to find that the parents are the ones who drive you to give it up? This handbook can help you lay the groundwork up front that will turn your parents into assets.

I could go on and on. This book may not have everything you will ever need, but it does have something useful about everything. A great read and a great resource.

"As-told-to" scribe Katherine Clark preserves Eugene Walter's voice in the memoir of this "character," as we call folks like him down South. Imagine Truman Capote without the best-selling books and TV fame. This is how Walter comes across in this memoir-autobiography-oral history transcript. He is a Southern Zelig, always showing up in pivotal moments in the development of literature and arts during the mid-20th century. Recalling his days in late 1940s New York, 1950s Paris and 1950s-60s Rome, he drops more names than the New York City phone book. From Greta Garbo to Judy Garland to Frederico Fellini, he hangs out with them all. The best-written portions of the book deal with his native Mobile, however. But who is he? He's the ultimate fly-on-the-wall. He writes some, acts some, translates movie scripts, throws cheap yet creative parties and plays the part of Southern eccentric in Europe. Who is he? He seems like an early 1970s Dick Cavett Show guest: an obscure bon vivant who shows up with George Plimpton to discuss a new Martha Graham dance or to cook a Southern meal. I ran across a mention of the book in an Oxford American magazine article and got a copy after reading a couple of very positive reviews by critics like Jonathan Yardly of the Washington Post. The book also received a 2001 National Book Critics Circle award nomination for biography. It's not for everyone. And I'm probably in that group. But it is intriguing and engaging and, at time, humorous. And at all times, like its subject, unique.

I am an unashamed perfervid Biblioholic. I own thousands of books. Literary biography is my preferred logocentric drug of choice. If I could keep just one book from my library it would undoubtedly be Milking the Moon.

Good books find me (it's a healthy relationship with the muse) and this one scooted into my hungry paws with a supernatural abandon that surprised even me.

Eugene Walter is a composite of a million different felicities. Though I didn't know him in the flesh he is now my friend for life. I've tramped around with him from the mossy environs of Mobile, where everybody is crazy, to Patchen Place to the Cafe de Tournon and tea with Alice Babette Toklas who waxed her moustache and pined for her absent, commaless companion.

The fabulous stories never cease; they knead into, flow into,dance into each other like the creation of the universe. Eugene and his life and his marvelous stories are the music of the spheres. If as Mr. Pater says--All art aspires to the condition of music--stop for a moment and let Eugene play for you.Dance with Tallu and Gore and the monkey and the Caribou and all the rest of the protean crazies Eugene encountered and annointed with his presence.

Take out a bank loan and buy everyone you know a copy of Milking the Moon.

I suppose I was one of the fortunate few who had a chance to meet Eugene before he died. The people I was working for back in the mid-nineties were friends of his and, therefore, I had the chance to be around him.

Eugene was the consummate storyteller. One of those who never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn. His idea was to make you enjoy where you were and who you were. To inject a little wonderousness into the world. Although based in truth, nothing he told was strictly true.

This book captures him almost perfectly. Although it cannot convey his gestures and antics and voice, it does convey his mind and gift for gab. Pour yourself a glass of port and read with the voice of an eccentric Southern uncle in your head and Eugene starts to come out. It's not quite the same as being there, but this book is as close as any of us will ever be again.

This book is excellent. All the other reviews are dead on accurate.

Just to add something different to the discussion...

I would have given it five stars but for one thing. Occasionally the detail overwhelmed the writing and story telling aspect lagged. Just every so often it started to read like an after-action report. Don't let this put you off, just don't plan on being able to read parts of it right before bed time.

Here is a wonderfully detailed and moving book. It satisfies the serious scholar in its overwhelming details, and yet carries the `human thread' to show the true wonder of what these marines did. My grandfather was with the 6th Marines at Belleau Wood and I guarantee he would have loved and respected this book.

With so few great titles on the American experience in the Great War this book is a must read. It reads very well and spares no small detail. It gives you a "leather-necks" view of the the war in France.

A long-time admirer of George Lindsey the actor, I am now also an admirer of Mr. Lindsey as an author and, more importantly, as a fine human being. Although some of the details of his early life were quite sad, this story is an affirmation of the value of determination, hard work, and talent. Once the reader has started, it is hard to stop. The narrative flows nicely, and provides the reader with a wealth of interesting information and insights from a man who has made generations laugh. Thank you, Mr. Lindsey - Well done!

This is the fourth book I have read on the subject of The Andy Griffith Show... Mr George Lindsey portrayed the character of "Goober" on this show and it's spin-off Mayberry RFD, and also on Hee-Haw. Not many people know that Mr. Lindsey was a student at the American Theatre Wing, attending on the GI Bill, and was trained in the Stanislavski Method of acting. His life story in this book is at once compelling and inspiring, for he truly is a student from the "school of hard knocks". Anyone wanting to know what it was like for a struggling actor starting out in the 50's trying to break into show business, and all the ups and downs of fame that comes with an actor's life, will be fascinated. He tells us in detail about all the people he has known, and experiences--both good and bad, with warmth and a sly sense of humor! He tells some crazy stories about himself that may raise a few eyebrows, but his candor is refreshingly honest in this day and age. I now have a new respect for Mr. Lindsey, and his often misunderstood character, the loveable Goober Pyle. You will too after reading this book!

Besides of this book having alot of factual data about the reknowned"Andy Griffith Show"and "HEE HAW" .There's also imformation about George Lindsey who portrayed Goober on that show who wasn't quite as popular as Barney Fife but when Don Knott's left the show,I think Goober(George Lindsey)contributed greatly to help keep the show popular until the series ended.Both Andy Griffith and Don Knotts have video biographies about their life and rich careers.I would like to see in the future that both superb actors George Lindsey(Goober) and Jim Nabors(Gomer) will someday deservingly have video biographies.

This book has marvelous images of just some of the fine works that George Ohr created. The summaries of his life are correct to some extent but it failed to provide any deatails of his offspring or how they may have carried on the innate artist abilities, this is why I only give it four stars.

this man was a a head of his time. i have never seen anythig that has come out of the 1800's that looked any thing like this.The photography is great and the biography is good , but the pottery is the best i have ever seen he had great form and great glaze you could not ask any more from a potter

As a given, the quality of the content is unsurpassed. Even to this day, Shakespeare must surely remain as one of the finest craftsmen (if not the finest) of the modern English language, and all English-speakers would do well to harken to the Bard.

Anyway, this printing (hardcover) is very attractive, at a distance. The leather (if it's genuine) is not of the highest quality, the pages have a tendency to stick together upon first opening of the book, a result of which is the rare white streak in the text. On a more positive note, the glossary at the back is of frequent use, though it lacks some words esoteric to this modern, American reader. I haven't really read their notes that also come in the back, so I can't comment on them.

However, the fact that one can obtain the complete works of Shakespeare, hardcover in leather, for a reasonable price, itself makes this edition desireable.

How dare you question the master's work! Shakespeer is nmot on trial--you are on trial becasue he is the best.

I think the key is that everyone rips him off--Ethan Hawke, Mel Gibson, stanley tucci, and Alley Mac Beel all copy him with their films.

SO buy this book and be edified.

This is a beautifully leather bound book. I was more than pleased with the quality of this book. Was even more amazed at the price. I was not expecting much based on the price because I expected something of this quality to cost much more.

The book is written by a respected US Gov Official. He has nothing to gain from writing this book but the contentment of disseminating the reality of US involvement in the middle east. Since writing the book, he has been chastised for being unpatriotic and even anti-semitic - all these reaction being confirmations of guilt. There is little subjectivity in this book - in fact it is not invigorating. Rather, Clark works through hard fact, in an appropriate level of detail, to describe just how misled the general public can be about war, and the incredible effects of sensationalist media and gov propaganda on the collective opinion. Read It.

Since the British lost their grip on the Middle-East, the U.S. have taken over. Mr. Clark very accurately describes how the role of the U.S. during the Gulf war fits into the bigger picture of how the U.S. have tried (and succeeded) for decades to remain the world's number one power. At first, I only wanted to read the book because I had some little doubts about the objectivity of the information that we received via the media. On the whole, I agreed that action was needed, and that the war against Iraq could not be avoided. Until I read this book...It was like shells fell from my eyes. I realise now that not only there was a lot more violence used against Iraq than we were told, and that the purpose of this war was not to get Iraq out of Kuwait (which was indeed the 19th province of Iraq before England "created" Kuwait out of it in 1922), but to cripple an entire nation for decades to come. But also that this war was carefully planned by the U.S. for years. Mr. Clark shows this with countless examples, that make you say to yourself: "yes, I always had doubts about that". One of them is that although the CIA was already aware for sixth months that during the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq used poison gas against the kurds in the North of Iraq, it never revealled this information to the press until after the Iran-Iraq ceasefire in 1988, 3 hours before an Iraqi delegate arrived in the U.S. and gave a press conference. This delegate was rather taken by surprise by the questions he got at this press-conference. I can hardly exagerate the need for everybody to read this book, and learn what price the Iraqi people had to pay to secure U.S. access to cheap oil...that's what bothers me most: this war was not about democracy or human rights, it was about money and power only. And by the way: all this talk about U.S. attempts to eliminate Mr. Hussein is, of course, nonsense. The U.S. still need him in the saddle because he gives the U.S. the excuse for presence in the Gulf and maintaining the economic sanctions. READ THIS BOOK!!! And see, among other things, that not only the Iraqi people were informed very subjectively by their media. We were also by ours.

An excellent book, throughly footnoted and straight forward. Don't pay any attention to the previous reviewer who comes of as some sawed off war hack who hasn't even read the book to start with.Since he doesnt agree with Clark, he resorts to character assassination of this great man..shows the mindset of "if you're not with me, you're against me." Clark does an excellent job in exposing the US for its terror campaign in the Middle East, not just the Iraq affair. If you have open mind and a consciousness and persistance for the facts, this book is for you...if not, than keep away from this book as it may cause problems to your "patriotic" brainwashed mindset.

I've been avidly researching George Parr as a topic in political science for some time now, and I find this book very dissapointing and upsetting. This is not a history book. This book was written by a man who was personally involved in a ideological battle against George Parr, and says many things that aren't true. He obviously knew all the details from memory, because he didn't cite any sources for his information. The captions for the pictures in the book are extrememly ridiculous. A picture of a dirt road is supposed to convince readers that George Parr kept the people poor. This is silly. If you talk to anyone who lived in Duval County during that time, you will find that he took care of everyone, and everyone loved him. Duval County actually had one of the better school systems in Texas during his reign, and according to one woman "he was our Robinhood." Political scandal, yes. Humanitarian, yes. Good book, no. I hope no one believes everything they read.

This book is an outstanding journal of the "Duke of Duval"
George Parr. Parr had made his mark on history by determining
the final outcome of the 1948 Senate election in Texas. Thanks to
his efforts Lyndon Johnson emerged the winner by an 80 vote margin. This book details how George Parr was finally brought to
justice. You have details of the investigation that resulted in the sucessful prosecution of The "Duke of Duval" and several of
his associates. The details of his downfall will prove to be very
interesting. You will also understand the dominant role that the
"Duke of Duval" had in Texas politics. This is an excellent read.
You will not be dissapointed.

The Duke of Duval reigned supreme in his South Texas domain in the 1930's while I was in early school years in Corpus Christi, Texas near Duval and Jim Wells Counties. Many people knew what was going on in Duval County since businessmen from Corpus Christi, including my father Clinton E. Smith, CPA, interfaced with George Parr's regime in their normal business dealings.

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Clark, the author of The Fall of the Duke of Duval at a book signing event at the small library at San Diego, Texas on March 2, 1996. Several hundred copies were signed that day. Mr. Clark's short message was to recognize and help prevent it all from happening again. While at the event, I had occasion to talk to the current Mayor of San Diego, TX and he quietly said to me about the book, its only the tip of the iceberg.

George Berham Parr changed U.S. history by orchestrating a vote fraud that caused Lyndon B. Johnson to become a U.S. Senator and later a good candidate for Vice President with Kennedy to help get southern votes. Many Texans never thought of Johnson as presidential material and after two Kennedy terms LBJ would have been too old to run effectively.

But The Duke of Duval made it happen, leading eventually to LBJ's starting programs that today have been bloated by beltway politicians until they are about to bankrupt the country and destroy our culture.

The speech in Mr. Clark's book, delivered by Mr. Josh Groce, a San Antonio attorney, should be MUST reading for any student of history.