As a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh and author of an upcoming guidebook to the area, I believe Pittsburgh: Story of An American City is a wonderful book for more than Pittsburghers.

This book lifts the lid on all our progressive city has to offer, it educates those who have outdated knowledge of Pittsburgh, and it makes a great gift book.

If that's not enough, it provides an ideal history lesson for all as Western Pennsylvania has many historic sights to see as well as splendid architecture!

After reading, you'll want to extend your next business trip to Pittsburgh, shop in more than our airport, and visit our family-friendly parks. Don't forget: Mister Rogers lives here! Your kids will love Idlewild Park, with the only life-size Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

If you can't be our neighbor, come see us. You won't be disappointed!

The latest edition of Pittsburgh is an expertly crafted and beautifully photographed continuation of the Lorant chronicle. Although Mr. Campbell finished the work after Mr. Lorant's death, the new chapter flows with the Lorant style. The edition uses an impressive array of photos to help tell the story and give a sense of the kind of people who have remained at the hard work of rebuilding an industrial city. Like the editions before, the work emphasizes the positive about the city and concentrates on physical renewal. Yet you come away thinking that whatever its problems, people working together can come up with a solution. People from the area will like this book but others who believe in the importance of cities will find it interesting and instructive.

We landed at Pittsburgh International Airport a little after dusk, impressed with how the runways appeared to grow out of the natural contours of the land. We joined the flowing rush hour traffic as the comfortable limousine sped in towards the city. Joe, our driver, talked enthusiastically about the change from steel city to high tech city, the history of an era that changed from black to white, but nothing was to prepare us for what was to follow. As we escaped through the Fort Pitt tunnel the night light panorama left us breathless-this surely is one of the new post-modern views of a post-industrial age.

The purpose of our visit had everything to do with 'The Book'; the style in which Pittsburgh's citizens would affectionately refer to Stefan Lorant's monumental opus Pittsburgh: the story of an American city. With an initial ten years in the making, first published in 1964 and revised in 1974, 1980 and 1988, Lorant was completing a fifth edition when he died in November 1997 just 100 days short of his 97th birthday. Twenty-five thousand copies of this new version, the 'Millennium Edition' are now on the bookstalls due to the tenacity, talent and sheer hard work of Bruce and Gail Campbell who inherited the copyright. Lorant himself was tenacious, immensely talented, capable of recognising talent in others and certainly subscribed to the work ethic. It is intriguing to speculate why a Hungarian, a foreigner and stranger to the city could write such a volume, on the surface a notion to be easily dismissed but a reality that became spectacularly successful.

Stefan Lorant was born in Budapest on February 22nd, 1901 and died in Rochester, Minnesota on November 14th, 1997 at 96-years-of-age. He was a witness to the century with his life spanning a period of political turmoil, war and social change. Lorant became a legend within his lifetime. His work as a visual and literary editor allowed him to pioneer and develop the genré of picture based journalism at a period in time which saw the emergence of modern mass communications. Internationally he became a guiding force, disseminating his ideas and political knowledge throughout Europe in the late-twenties and thirties by working in Germany, Hungary and England, eventually spreading his sphere of influence to America where he introduced the concept of the pictorial biography. His innovative layouts, his 'exclusive' interviews and thirst for knowledge became a familiar part of millions of everyday lives, largely through the pages of his own creations, and in particular the legendary media icon Picture Post. His vision of photography as a documentary medium inspired Life and Look magazines in America, and paved the way for the eventual emergence of the television documentary. For this he became recognised as 'the father of picture journalism'.

Originally published in 1964, the first edition of Pittsburgh: the story of an American city is the mature Lorant at his most brilliant. 'The Book' had a specific local audience as well as a wider interested public throughout America and that is reflected by the reviews of the first edition. Harrison E. Salisbury in The New York Times sees 'The whole tumultuous story of Pittsburgh, magnificently illustrated... is presented in this volume... the study of the metamorphosis is all here-the bloody struggles of the nineteenth century, the grit and smoke, the politics, the toil, the sweat-the imagination.' Publishers' Weekly was equally congratulatory but in a different way. 'It is certainly one of the most fascinating detailed picture histories yet attempted of any city anywhere. For readability, thoroughness (ten years of research went into it), graphic quality, and broad scope (it covers political and social history, daily life, labor problems, architecture and what have you), this is a model history of an American city.'

Lorant's Pittsburgh: the story of an American city is not just a biography of a city but a microcosm of the American peoples. Just ten or so days before he died in November 1997, Lorant complained that he only needed a good day to complete 'The Book'. To be accurate Lorant's 'good day' did not mean a working period of time between dawn and dusk, or any other measure within that 24-hour cycle. It was an infinitely variable amount of time necessary to complete the story to Lorant's satisfaction. He was not to have that 'good day'. He had completed the layout for the new pages and commissioned the new photographs, most of which were in place. Picking up the editorial reigns, Gail and Bruce Campbell have produced this new edition with Bruce weaving the strands of the new final chapter from 1988 to the millennium which he entitles, 'The best is yet to come'.

There are parallels with which Lorant would have been acquainted. Mozart's pupil Süssmayr, well appraised of his master's procedure and intentions completed the final masterpiece-Requiem in D minor. By comparison, the Campbell's share an affinity with Lorant's intentions and have produced a contemporary and forward looking vision which retains Lorant's classic composition.

Those of us who knew Lorant well, can still visualise him sat at his kitchen table in his farmhouse in Lenox with a copy of the new Millennium Edition open in front of him. For a while nothing would be said, though nothing would be missed. Eventually there would be a slight shrug of his shoulders, a nonchalant wave of his hands. 'It is good, very good-but with my help, perhaps we could have made it ten percent better.' That would be praise indeed from this great Hungarian editor, for without question Lorant would have approved.

This is a 'must-have' for any millennium book list!

Another one of Leiber's early novles that explores the relationship between science and the supernatural. The story, though simple in its plot, is deep in character and the concept of good vs. evil witchcraft. While not as intrigate as his other stories (ie: Gather, Darkness) it is still an enlightening read, one published ahead of its time. The Gregg Press edition only adds to the understanding by including a forward by Charles L. Grant and Foster Hirsch, and pictures from couple of the movies based on te story.

Where to start?
Both Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness are masterpeices of supernatural fiction. Conjure Wife, written by Fritz Leiber in the 1940's, is both frightening and thought-provoking, it is also suprisingly up to date. The proposition that all women are witches and utterly control their husbands lives is followed through in a very personal narrative. Don't be put off by the film versions (particularly Night of The Eage, aka Burn Witch Burn), this is a complex story which has an eerie power akin to his famous story 'Smoke Ghost'.
Our Lady of Darkness, was written by Fritz Leiber in the late seventies and is one of his finest novels. Autobiographical (the location, the alcoholism and the loss of his wife are all based on fact) and thus very upsetting in parts. It weaves a magical vision of modern urban horror, a theme that he used throughout his career. At the centre of the book lies horror fiction itself in the form of Lovecraft and particularly Clark Ashton Smith (both of whom Fritz corresponded with). A lot of the book is a voyage of discovery, the central character is recovering from an alcaholic wake and is slowly waking up into reality again.
This volume brings together Fritz Leibers finest supernatural novels, something not to be missed

This book contains, in tablature and standard notation, songs by a number of great Delta bluesmen -- Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Willie Brown, Skip James and others. Grossman does not in every case write out the notation for the entire song; a song might be represented by its intro, first verse and closing guitar lick, or maybe just by an extended break. In each case, Grossman gives you enough information that you can sit down with the recording and learn to play these classic songs.

Interview snippets, history and photographs add great color and texture to an extremely useful work.

Just a beauty of a book. A sampling of classic delta bluesmen with their songs and tablature. Many are quoted, shedding light on personalities and the time and place in which they lived. A great book to purchase if you want to explore the genre.

If you're expecting a traditional, fat business book, look elsewhere. If you're expecting a get-rich book with the five points to instant wealth, look elsewhere. You need an open mind, a inquisitive nature and a brain. With Detective Marketing, it's as though Stefan Engeseth has distilled and concentrated all the marketing gems - including plenty with a social conscience and pleasing consumers - into this one book. Flip open any spread and there's a nugget of information for the reader to get inspired by and develop further. Stefan advocates everything from oneness with the consumer to ideas that properly tie a brand to its core attitude. I'm proud to know the author, whom I met professionally after I read this book. An inspiration in print as he is in person.

Stefan: how about Detective Marketing II? We'd like more of your genius!

If you wonder where successfull nordic companies such as Absolut Vodka and IKEA get their inspiration from, I can tell you: It's all in this great book! Page after page the author gave me ideas to put my own business into higher levels. Stefan Engeseth, I love your book! It's too bad you can't be my every day colleague.

The reader discovers together with Stefan Zweig the poetic force and the essential human and metaphysical messages of Verhaeren's work.
Zweig's analysis is perspicacious and profound, written in an enthralling style.

Verhaeren sees art as a victory on the human destiny of suffering and his art as a witness of that victory.
He is the first enthusiastic bard and realistic painter of the modern world: the emergence of the democracy of the big cities, the masses, the mines, the struggle between the industry (the progressives, the socialists) and the peasantry (the conservatives, the Catholics), the emigration, the financial crises, the scientific discoveries.
Behind this realism lay Verhaeren's philosophical conceptions and aspirations: his limitless love for a physically and metaphysically free humanity, free from hazard and obscure religions; the emancipation of mankind through the work of scientists and their scientific discoveries.
Verhaeren is a pantheist, a participating part of nature and the human community. He is the poet of an emerging Europe as a big brotherhood.

It is horrendously difficult to write an inspiring book about a poet and his work and to present an analysis that arouses the interest of the reader. But this work reads like a thriller. It should be read by all biographers in order to learn how to keep their readers in their spell. I believe every poet would like to have a biographer like Zweig.
Not to be missed.

I'm working at the University, here in Mexico, over some of the poets that have writen their feelings using the industrialisation words. One of them is Emile Verhaeren. I'd like to know if there is an English or an American poet writing before 1900 this kind of words. If you sell the books, please, let me know

This fascinating, well-written little volume is investing made easy for those of us who aren't Warren Buffet, and may even be "investing-challenged." With excellent analogies and anecdotes drawn from his puttering around the garden, the author makes the seemingly daunting task of what to do with one's - and one's family's - cherished and hard-earned savings seem not only less paralyzing, but even fun. And since the author writes informatively not only about finances but about gardening, it's a terrific "two-fer." Quite simply, it's the best investment I ever made.

I loved this little book!
I tend to be rather daunted by numbers in general and financial statements in particular, but this book discusses the basics of investing in terms of gardening -- tending the soil, planting the seed, waiting for the harvest -- rather than in terms of things that make my eyes glaze over. I've never heard investing described in this way, but it really helped me understand so much!

I've never read a book like this before. It teaches you very complex
algorithms *and* how to prove their correctness *and* their concrete
implementation in C++ *and* how to prove the correctness of the given
implementation *and* how to speed up the implementation *and* the
proper use of the fantastic LEDA-library *and* the underlying object
oriented design *and* how to do fine software engineering.

I've really read every single line of this book, even every single
line of code and I'm filled with enthusiasm. It is definitely a
must-read for every scientific programmer who wishes to improve his
style of programming, the correctness and speed of his code, his time
spent for coding, or who just wants to learn about the most important data
structures and their implementation and how to borrow them from the
award winning LEDA library instead of inventing the wheel twice.

This book finishes the time of boring pseudocode lyricists who teach
you how and why an algorithm and his data structures work, but not how
you can *get* them to work.

LEDA library is one of the best library ever built to combine efficient data structures with extensive algorithms, ( ). Particularly the readability of the code is one of the best. This book is essential for those who want to know more about LEDA and the theory behind it. From the point of view of a computational geometer, the book shows a nice and detailed presentation of the theory and its implementation in practice. Especially I like the pseudo code part in the book.

Once one has read the articles in this book it becomes clear that meta-heuristics are intelligently designed methods to provide decision makers with tools for decision support. Each chapter is self-contained and provides different insights into specific methods (especially genetic algorithms, neural networks, tabu search, simulated annealing). These methods are well explored and explained by means of theoretical as well as practical results, e.g., for vehicle routing or mail delivery or generalized assignment. Ideas on how to implement the methods are also provided. Most papers are easy to read with only some preliminaries in mathematics (or combinatorial optimization). The chapters are carefully collected and could have been accepted for high-quality journals as well. Well done.

i have no idea what it is avbout, but it looks really cool from the name and totally confusing nature of it.

Usp. Fiz Nauk 162, 189-190 (October 1992) Nonlinear and Relativistic Effects in Plasmas (Research Trends in Physics), Ed. V. Stefan, AIP, New York, 1992, 764p. This book is a collection of reports presented at the eponymous conference held in San Diego in 1990,organized by V.Stefan. The conference set an ambitious goal: to gather the most outstanding American specialists on the practical problems of nonlinear and relativistic effects in plasma. The areas of application are extremely varied, and areas were selected by the organizing committee according to their timeliness. The selected areas were beam, laser, and magnetic fusion, megnetohydrodynamic turbulence and transport in plasma systems, beams of relativistic particles, acceleration of particles by a coherent electromagnetic wave, charged plasma, the physics of the upper atmosphere, cosmic and stellar plasmas, and the interaction of waves with particles and waves. . The organizing committee, which consisted of such prominent specialists as D. Baldwin, R. Davidson, A. Hasegava, M. Rosenbluth, T. Stix, and others, proposed that this variety would have a cross pollinating effect: the methods developed in one area could find an application in other areas. A subject of pure theory, for example, the interaction of waves with particles, is now used in the heating of plasma, the generation of a current in tokamaks, in plasma diagnostics, in particular acceleration, and in the stabilization of plasma instabilities. The materials from the conference demonstrate the practical value of many theoretical ideas. The goal set by the conference organizers, the creation of a contact between experienced and young specialists, was obviously met. This collection is undoubtedly of interest to scientists of all ages and skills.

This book is a collection of reports presented at the eponymous conference held in San Diego in 1990,organized by V.Stefan. The conference set an ambitious goal: to gather the most outstanding American specialists on the practical problems of nonlinear and relativistic effects in plasma. The areas of application are extremely varied, and areas were selected by the organizing committee according to their timeliness. The selected areas were beam, laser, and magnetic fusion, megnetohydrodynamic turbulence and transport in plasma systems, beams of relativistic particles, acceleration of particles by a coherent electromagnetic wave, charged plasma, the physics of the upper atmosphere, cosmic and stellar plasmas, and the interaction of waves with particles and waves. . The organizing committee, which consisted of such prominent specialists as D. Baldwin, R. Davidson, A. Hasegava, M. Rosenbluth, T. Stix, and others, proposed that this variety would have a cross pollinating effect: the methods developed in one area could find an application in other areas. A subject of pure theory, for example, the interaction of waves with particles, is now used in the heating of plasma, the generation of a current in tokamaks, in plasma diagnostics, in particular acceleration, and in the stabilization of plasma instabilities. The materials from the conference demonstrate the practical value of many theoretical ideas. The goal set by the conference organizers, the creation of a contact between experienced and young specialists, was obviously met. This collection is undoubtedly of interest to scientists of all ages and skills.

A very practical treatment of the PE spectroscopic techniques. Includes a lot of analysis of actual PE spectra. This book is full of valuable insights into this process. A must read for anybody seriously into the field.

A book by a master of the field, a comprehensive reference for experts, yet a lucid guide for novices. This true delight to readers will become the standard citation in scientific papers in the next 20 years.