I have been collecting Harrison Fisher illustrated prints and bookplates for about 10 years now.

Ms. Welch compiles so much of Harrison Fisher's work in this volume.
This book begins with a biography which has the most information I have read about him anywhere. Good quality materials are used; this is a large artbook with full-color illustrations printed on glossy, thick paper. Most, if not all, of Harrison Fisher's Cosmopolitan and Ladies Home Journal magazine covers are pictured here.

Each artbook has its own section that includes detailed publishing and printing information and is followed by the illustrations presented in the order in which they appear in the artbooks. Differences in first and second printings are discussed. Ms. Welch includes insets of Harrison Fisher's signed artbook contracts.
Various collectibles featuring Fisher's artwork are pictured accompanied by a value guide in the back of the book. Please note that postcards of Harrison Fisher's illustrations are shown in another of Naomi Welch's works.

Thorough reference source and great collector's item on Harrison Fisher and his illustrations. Would love to see more reference books in the future on Fisher. Hopefully, a biography will be published about him some day.

If you want to find out more about Harrison Fisher and his illustrations this book will give you wide exposure to his work.

A great book--comprehensive, great insights into the author's life, terrific color reproduction and sturdy binding so you can look at it again and again. A minor quibble is that I would have loved to have seen some of the magazine covers full page, but that was probably cost prohibitive. Somebody, please do a Harrison Fisher poster book!

Naomi Welch has done a beautiful job on "The Complete Works of Harrison Fisher Illustrator". I grew up with Harrison Fisher prints and dearly love them. Ms. Welch has certianly done her homework providing a well written history of Harrison Fisher and his works. The pictures are presented in a very loving manner with great detail. It is a must have for any Harrison Fisher collector! Beautiful!

Undeniably a book of mystery. The reader always gets a dual sense of distance with Hamsun. There is the proximity - at times alarming - between the narrator and the synaptic impulses of the main character's brain. Yet there is also this persistent sense of not being let into a secret, the key to the disturbing, possibly insane nature of the hero (if you can call the prominent figure in Mysteries that). What Hamsun, and I'm guessing now, was trying to let the world in on was a kind of proto-existential angst - Kafka before Kafka if you like. The hero lives in a constant tornado of emotional highs and lows at times appearing in control, at times not. And this is the unsatisfying, fascinating heart of Mysteries. I urge you to read it, but only after reading Hunger, which set high standards
not only for Hamsun but for modernist writers for decades to come.

He is one of the great writers of the twentieth century, though his best works were written before 1900. He is one of the most influential European novelists of the last hundred years, yet he is not well known in the United States. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the most important Norwegian author since Ibsen, he is often ignored in his own country. He is Knut Hamsun -- novelist of genius...

Hamsun, in "Mysteries, Pan, and Hunger", wrote three of the greatest novels of the late nineteenth century, novels which created a new literary style and which delineated a new literary hero: the alienated loner. His work was widely admired in the first half of the twentieth century, with writers as diverse as Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, and Henry Miller citing Hamsun's work as being of special importance and influence. Isaac Bashevis Singer, in his essay "Knut Hamsun, Artist of Skepticism" goes so far as to claim that "the whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun." Henry Miller said of "Mysteries" that it "is closer to me than any other book I've read." The second of Hamsun's great early novels, and my personal second favorite...!

Mysteries is that rare breed of book which mesmerizes you and pulls you through its pages, transfixed, before you know what's happened to you. With Norway serving as the idyllic backdrop, we are suddenly living life through the eyes of the charming but insane Johan Nagel. Nagel lands as a stranger in a small coastal town and weaves the unwitting residents into the reckless schemes of his disturbed mind. As he does, he gives desperate vent to his frustrations, dreams, romantic yearnings, joys, rage, love, and compulsion to belong. Peopled by the midget Grogaard, the unattainable beauty Dagny Kielland, the disapproving magistrate's deputy Reinert, and the whimsical spinster Martha Gude, Knut Hamsun's narrative genius lies in the things he leaves unsaid at every stage of the story, and doing so especially brilliantly towards the book's end, where everything coalesces and resolves by subtle implication. Hamsun's artistic mastery is overwhelming and refreshing. I hope you enjoy the dazzling display of his talents as much as I did in this book.

"Life in Christ" has been on the market for a long time. In terms of Christian books that usually says good things about the quality of the work.

Billed as "A Manual for Disciples", this workbook is a very thorough examination of all aspects and disciplines of the Christian life. Its nearly three hundred page length attests to the breadth of material that is covered. Topics such as knowing God, prayer, the Bible, The Holy Spirit, Christ, testing of one's faith, and evangelism make up just a few of the areas covered.

Each chapter follows a topical study that has a short passage of the Bible to read with a question or two afterward about the passage. There are sidebars that explain some concepts as well as stories by Christian figures. Opportunities are presented for journaling and Scripture memory.

The sidebars are especially enlightening and cull from some of the greatest Christian writers and preachers. The assemblage of thought here is splendid. You hear from the likes of Leonard Ravenhill, Billy Sunday, D.L. Moody, R.A.Torrey, J.I. Packer, Charles Spurgeon, Vance Havner, George MacDonald, and others. That list should give you a feel for where this manual is coming from doctrinally. Frankly, I think it is superb in this regard.

It is also worthy to note that this workbook is absolutely filled with superb engravings from artists such as Gustav Dore. The illustrations give the book a serious feel and help to highlight the profundity of the material covered. Never have I seen a book of this type so well illustrated. A delight for the eyes as well as the soul!

If I have any problems with the material it is that it has a tendency to ask questions that require only simple responses. While there are many thought-provoking questions and sections, a few don't really delve that deeply. If you intend to use this as a guide for a group, take time to unpack some of the questions a bit more for best results.

Let me end this review by saying that I've used this workbook with new Christians and it has brought excellent results. You would not go wrong in considering it for your discipleship materials.

I find Tony Salerno's "Life in Christ" discipleship manuel to be the best I've ever found and I've used it the past 15 years or more as a foundational text for teaching the basics of the faith especially to new coverts. I've required anyone who aspires to our church leadership to go thru this material with me one-on-one as a prerequisite. [This is part of building unity of faith within our church.] I even made up a "final exam" based on this manuel for each student who would complete "discipleship." If there is a better discipleship manuel out there in Christiandom, I sure would like to know. I do supplement this manuel with my own teaching but the framework provided to hang my own stuff is just excellent. There's 10 chapters each dealing with a specific topic; I think Salerno picked the 10 most essential for the "basic" Christian. Bible doctrine could be "dry" but Salerno has good illustrations, pictures and anecdotes, so I find what is taught is interesting and edifying. I don't find the "extremes or distinctives" of varied denominations taught here; all teachings seem to be very basic and biblically grounded. My own personal preference would be for the manuel to use the NIV (New International Version) rather that the KJV (King James Version). Students need to write their response to questions in the manuel and all my students uses the NIV--for easier, better understanding of the Holy Scripture. But other than that, anyone going thru this manuel with the right attitude will be well on their way to becoming a solid disciple of Christ.

"Life in Christ" is a wondeful discipling tool for communicating the basic Christian doctrines with a new believer. This text guides a new believer in exploring and studying the Scripture, realizing they have a testimony and encouraging them to witness. My husband and I went through this study about six months after our conversion and were blessed by its thoroughness. The artwork throughout the pages is beautiful.

This collection of the work of Tony Harrison I found to be excellent. His accounts of his working-class background in Leeds, and his struggle to reconcile the conflicting worlds of his background and his present status as an acclaimed poet, constitutes the bulk of his work. He has a modern tone to his voice which speaks of universal themes of breaking away from one's past.

Harrison's niche is combining contemporary language (including obscenities and slang) with traditional poetic forms. Working class Leeds meets classicism. Harrison does this beautifully, his many fine moments well outweighing his occasional metrical or rhyme difficulties. The long title poem is a painful meditation on the speaker's self and heritage occasioned by finding his parents'gravestones defaced by obscene graffiti. Other poems extent and enrich Harrison's reflections on his working class background and painful relationship with his father. There are other powerful, moving and memorable poems in this slim volume which, dear reader, you should have if you enjoy traditional forms and devices, all in the service of a keen mind and open heart. And hunt down his Selected Poems while it's still in print.

The inclusion of Victor Hugo's name and title on the cover is misleading, implying a parallel French/English text. This is an adaptation in verse which moves the setting to London. It's well realized, but if you are looking for the original play, you will be disappointed.