William H Rau (1855-1920), one of Philadelphia's preeminent photographers, was commissioned by the PRR in 1890 to photograph hundreds of scenes along its lines in order to promote travel by the general public. This book contains 87 of his 463 original images, which are owned by American Premerier Underwriters, Inc., sucessor firm to the Penn Central and PRR railroads, and on deposit with The Library Company of Philadelphia.
John R. Stilgoe, Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at Harvard expresses in one of the book's three essays, "These photographs glisten with an energy born of opening, not the opening of pioneers opening the forest nor the opening of the first half-century of railroad technology, but the opening of wholly constructed, wholly controlled, scheduled and maintained, wholly artifical space."
Rau was a world class photographer and this is a fine selection of his PRR work. Therefore, it would be difficult to rate this book as anything other than first class.
These are excerpts from my complete review of this book, which will appear in a future edition of "The Keystone," the official quarterly publication of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society (PRRT&HS).

Alan B. Buchan
Member, Board of Directors - PRRT&HS

I am an internationally A+ Certified Service Technition and found that this is one of the best books regarding this subject. I just recently ventured into the "hardware" section of computers and found this very helpful an practical. A must for anyone using computers

A great book. A-z on the rainforest, animals, plants, tribes, distruction, and much more,

My Great Great Grandfather, Private Thomas Quinlan (who is on page 230 of this book)who fought under DeForest with the 12th Connecticut Volunteers, would have been proud of the way in which DeForest's written words immortalize the battles that they fought for future generations to understand just how brutal the Civil War battles were. DeForest describes the battles in such a way that the reader feels that they are there on the battlefield. This book is a "MUST HAVE" for any Civil War library/collection.

I said it in the title.

If you can get this book- and you are any kind of craftsman- you will love it. I wated a month or so- and it was worth the wait.

We here in scifi-stories.com just finished reading the last book of this TIMESHIFT trilogy 'What Price Paradise?' and it is very interesting, well thought out and well written. The one that will definitely intrigue you until the end. We can't recommended it enough. For this last book Phillip Ellis Jackson teamed up with author John William Galt, an award winning movie talent, screenwriter, and actor.

In the third book of the Timeshift trilogy we find Elias Putnam discovering a way to send a jumper (what time travelers are called) back in time. Keith Maravich is sent back to save Alicia York and her mother from being murdered, believing that this could fix the calamities mankind has caused.

Carson Gilmore, Keith Maravich's friend, is sent back on a mission to stop Maravich from changing the past. In the middle of the desperation that mankind finds itself in the future, Maravich believes he will do good by affecting the past, bringing the scenario of changing events from the past that could cause irreversible consequences and an uncertain future.

This book is never boring and all connects together very well.

When finishing this books we now wonder, with what new ideas will Phillip Jackson come up with next? We have become his fans as a 'story teller' just as we know many of those that will read these books.

I bought this book with high expectations, and every one was met. It covered all of the early electrifications in as much detail as could be given without boring me. It covers the pros and cons of AC vs. DC, the wars between which one was "better" for mainline electrification, and the differences in 3rd rail and the different types of overhead.

I read the whole book during my Carribean vacation I was so interested in it, but lost my copy on the airplane. I am buying another copy even after finishing it because it is a great reference book.

Final thought: If you are a fan of electrifcation, this is the book for you.

Humor beyond compare. This book belongs in every nursing home, living resources center, self-help library -- not to mention on the nightstand of anyone who's ailing and needs a good laugh. A prolific cartoonist, all of Callahan's books are excellent, and none of the cartoons repeat in any of his several volumes. The vision of John Callahan is monumental. Don't miss the laughter; it will make you well.

This book brings the words and images of Blake to brilliant life. The volume is gorgeous, and the colors extremely rich. Having read Blake's poetry in un-illuminated format before, I now am even more appreciative of the value of seeing the work as Blake originally intended. Blake is a marvelous poet and artist, and this collection of his illuminated work is a marvelous book.

William Eggleston's photos grow on you. Look through this book for the first time and the contents seem a bit like ordinary snapshots but look again and then again and with each viewing the images become more familiar (still with something fresh to discover each time) but now they start to blend together seamlessly. One reason for this, I think, is that the photos capture the everyday and the ordinary. Taken around Eggleston's hometown of Memphis and in the Deep South, they show some of his relations, street scenes, interiors, buildings and more, though the captions only state the locations. John Szarkowski says in the books introduction "..today's most radical and suggestive color photography derives much of its vigor from commonplace models" This capturing of the everyday and in color divided the critics in 1976 when the Museum of Modern Art used seventy-five of Egglestons's images for their first exhibition of color photography. The 'Guide' unfortunately only shows forty-eight from the show.

Art photography until this exhibition was in black and white and had been for years, color photos were mostly for ads, commercial print and snapshots. Thankfully the Museum's curator of photography, Szarkowski, had the good sense to allow the public to see something new and fresh. I think the 'Guide' is a good introduction to Eggleston and if you like his creative vision, as I do, have a look at these two books of his work, 'The Democratic Forest' and 'Ancient and Modern'. Both are full of wonderful color photos of the American everyday.