This is an indispensable reference for anyone involved in the potter's and ceramic arts. More an encyclopedia than a dictionary, the depth and detail of coverage is outstanding.

From the artistic to the highly technical, everything is here. Materials & processes as well as chemical compositions and practical formulae are accompanied by black & white photos and excellent diagrams.

A wealth of information is provided in an appendix of 42 tables, a bibliography, a list of suppliers and personal recipes from a number of artists. Historical styles and techniques are included as well.

Two sections of color plates include many varied and beautiful finished pieces with technical details and references to appropriate dictionary entries. This is definitely a classic in its field.

This is the single best hands-on resource for clay working that I have found in over 20 years of clayworking, studying and teaching. It is a dictionary BUT it is cross-referenced and illustrated with many well-covered, interlocking topics. There are seven full pages on cracking alone with all the various factors described so one can diagnose and correct problems in the shortest possible time.

I have depended upon this book for years as a student and now as a professor of ceramics. Topics are listed alphabetically (as in a dictionary or encyclopedia) and provide information ranging from the definition of common and obscure potter's terminology, to thorough explanations of the physical and chemical properties of clay and various related materials. This is a resource that will keep providing information as you progress in your understanding of the medium.

This is an excellent biography of one of the greatest lawmen in U.S. history. I've heard a lot of rants from misguided Bonnie and Clyde fans about the book's alleged inaccuracies. Well, there hasn't been a book on Bonnie and Clyde or Depression outlaws published to date (including my own!) that hasn't had some drastic errors in it, one reason being that most of the books, including I'm Frank Hamer, draw heavily from the Fugitives, the ghosted 1934 memoirs of Bonnie's mother and Clyde's sister. I'm not one of these people who presume to know who killed the two highway patrolmen at Grapevine. It may have been Henry Methvin, Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, or all three for that matter (ballistics evidence indicated three guns were fired). Nor am I one of those misguided worshippers of Bonnie and Clyde, who were really nothing more than a pair of two-bit, scatter-brained, trigger-happy psychos. But all that is neither here nor there, as this is not simply a "Bonnie & Clyde book." This is a biography, and a damn good one, of the man who tracked them down--Frank Hamer, who captured or killed dozens of other criminals and carried with him the scars, and much of the lead, from many gunfights with maggots of the Clyde Barrow sort. Hamer came out of retirement to run down the Barrow gang. The ambush of Clyde and Bonnie was the perfect closing of Hamer's career and a great service to America as well. It was the job he was made to do and one that had to be done. Forget Hollywood. The real Bonnie and Clyde were murderous criminals who deserved just what they got. And Frank Hamer was just the man to give it to them.

It has been many years since I first read this book and I found it very informative. I am sure there are bound to be some errors but on the most part it is historically accurate. It is not only about ending Bonnie and Clyde's murderous spree but about the man that did it and how he became a Texas Police Officer and came up through the ranks to become one of the greatest Texas Rangers who ever lived. The review written by anomie@mail.com, is total bull written buy someone who evidently prefers to believe the glamorized version of the Bonnie & Clyde movie. I have been a Texas State Police officer for 23 years and have read some of the actual reports of Bonnie and Clydes exploits and to contradict anomie@mail.com, Bonnie and Clyde deserve no respect as stated by anomie. Anomie needs to be better informed of the facts before making reviews. Sorry for the rant but I hate for anyone to bad mouth a great man and take up for a couple of cold blooded illiterate killers who were glamorized by Hollywood as a cute loving couple out for a Sunday drive.

ITS BEEN THIRTEEN YEARS SINCE I INITIALY READ THIS BOOK. I HAVE BEEN DYING TO READ IT AGAIN BUT CANT FIND A COPY TO PURCHASE. BEING AN AMETUER HISTORIAN ON LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY LAWMEN AND OUTLAWS I FOUND THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS TEXT TO BE ACCURATE AND AUTHORATATIVE. A LOT OF MY INTEREST COMES FROM BEING A TEXAS PEACE OFFICER AND AN AFFICIIANADO OF FIREARMS BOTH MODERN AND HISTORICAL. THIS BOOK IS PREDOMINANTLY WRITTEN IN THE INFORMAL AND WESTERN COLOCIAL WHICH FITS THE SUBJECT MATTER. IT IS A WELL VERSED BIOGRAPHY ON ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING AND COLORFUL FIGURES IN WESTERN HISTORY. IT IS A SHAME THAT MORE WRITERS AND OR MOVIE PRODUCERS HAVE NOT TAKEN INTEREST IN THIS UNIQUE AND POTENT FIGURE. THIS WOULD BE A GOOD SUBJECT FOR A DIRECTOR OF THE ILK OF SAY JOHN MILIUS. BEYOND THAT LET ME SAY IF THAT IF YOU ARE TIRED OF THE TRUMPED UP BONNIE AND CLYDE FLUFF AND WOULD LIKE TO GET A REALISTIC AND HEROIC ACCOUNT OF THE GENTLEMAN LAWMAN THAT ASSISTED IN RIDDING SCOCIETY OF THESE AND OTHER NO ACCOUNTS, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. THE GOOD GUYS STORY, FOR A CHANGE.

The places and range that Frank Hammer ranges are of great historical curiosity for anyone living in the area that he operated. I can appreciate not only the danger but also the carisma he must have possessed to align forces with the forces dela Mexico. In the East Texas escapades Frank operated in many well known towns whose citizens may not even be aware that he was operating in. It is almost unbelievable that a Texas Ranger with that many notches on his belt was not killed by the likes of the outlaws he chased. From his earliest thoughts about being a pastor to the 1st man that he shot down, his life was superrealistic in his cander of getting the job done, as well as his devotion to the love of his life