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This book has three essays, humorous and serious, relating to writing as Poe describes. How to Write a Blackwood's Article, The Philosophy of Composition, and X-ing a Paragraph. Poe himself investigated a variety of genres and styles of writing, from the erudite and abstruse to the colloquial, ironic, and satirical.

Ambrose Bierce runs through a catalog of misuse of the English language as it should be spoken and written by Americans. Though his list is 100 years old, he was so meticulous that it would benefit any writer to consult it.

Seven essays by Robert Louis Stevenson on writing techniques, style, the profession, realism, and notes about his most famous two novels: Treasure Island and The Master of Ballantrae.

A minor classic of American literature, The Man Without a Country was written in the midst of the Civil War to bring home the emotional point of leaving the Union with no prospect of returning. The character is fictitious but many of the events and situations described are historically accurate. This short piece captures the essence of patriotism from the flip side -- and the remorse of having taken a youthful stand of defiance.

A reader's edition, modernized language ("you" for "thee," etc.) and glossary for unfamiliar words. Venus and Adonis was published early in Shakespeare's career, establishing his reputation as a poet before that of playwright, as plays were not considered "literature" at the time. He draws on stories from Ovid to expound on his major theme: Love. In Shakespeare's version, Venus is the aggressor, Adonis is a youth who resists. He was set for hunting the boar when interrupted by Venus. By the end of the longpoem, Venus catalogs the various ways that love affects people, changes them, torments them. The source of this poem, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a huge work, is currently available online for free at www.bandannabooks.com/ovid. Once illustrations are complete, the Ovid book will come out as "The Changes." More than a dozen plays of Shakespeare can be found at http: //www.bandannabooks.com/drama.php, some of them in the form of Playbooks designed for directors and producers to keep tabs on all the elements that go into play production.

A reader's edition, modernized language ("you" for "thee," etc.) and glossary for unfamiliar words. Plus chart of characters continuing from one play to another. Falstaff appears, in one way or another, in four of Shakespeare's plays. His character serves as a counterpoint to the transformation of the scamp Prince Hal, who ultimately, on ascending the throne, must repudiate his old drinking and thieving buddy, Falstaff. As seen in the chart of characters in the back matter, many characters appear in more than one play, including the reprobates surrounding Falstaff, a fat old knight whose moral sense has eroded to the mere semblance of propriety. The character of Falstaff has fascinated audiences for a few centuries now, for when he is on the stage, he's stage center. Even in his dying and death, his companions bring him back to memory. Queen Elizabeth is reported to have been so enchanted with Falstaff after Shakespeare had written him into two plays, that she insisted he write another specifically for Falstaff, and that became The Merry Wives of Windsor, unrelated to history, just for fun, mostly at the expense of Falstaff. Henry V shows the reformed Prince Hal as a conquering hero; meanwhile Falstaff can be heard from a back room, as he is dying. If you've never seen the extravagant character of Falstaff onstage, try these free samples at http: //www.bandannabooks.com/free/falstaffsample.zip. Other works of Shakespeare, including Sir Toby Belch, a predecessor of the character of Falstaff, can be found at http: //www.bandannabooks.com/drama.php. A dozen of these books are Playbooks for directors and producers actually involved in or planning to investigate live productions.

Near the end of his long life, in 1904, he wrote yet another story of the Caucasus, an area he knew from his own military experiences there in his twenties (the 1850s), participating in incursions into the Caucasus area. The Russian long-term strategy in the Caucacus had developed into a continuing effort to unite Orthodox Christian Russia itself with the Christian nation of Georgia. The area in between, however, had long been settled by various ethnic groups of the Muslim faith, often at odds with each other, among which were the Chechens. This story, though told as fiction, is about a real Chechen leader, a cultural hero (dzhigít), Hadji Murad, who had been active at the time. Tolstoy seems artless in the infectious spirit of life in his writings. He himself questioned this quality in What Is Art? Curiosity and keen observation and, in this case, good memory, serve him well. His ability to "inhabit" his characters, including those of another culture, may rival that ability in Shakespeare, so that we readers feel that we know the characters and the world they inhabit as well as the author does. Brief history lesson: This episode occurs right between two important European events: the revolutions of 1848, and the Crimea War. A Glossary is provided, including notes on historical events and personalities of the times. Another book by Tolstoy, not a novel, is The Gospel According to Tolstoy (www.createspaced.com/3846726), a reweaving of the Gospel stories of Jesus to uncover his teaching, while rejecting the non-teaching elements: the miracle birth, genealogy, miracles, resurrection, claim for his messiahship. Tolstoy distills the teaching to five new commandments.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's longpoem Aurora Leigh is a drama of love and ideas in an era shaken by revolutions and progressive programs. Her headstrong heroine makes her way without her cousin's help, refusing his offer of marriage to stake our her own career. Yet their stories intertwine with other characters, efforts to better the world that come crashing down, miscommunications, until they both individually undergo changes of heart that allow for what we presume is to be a happy ending on a rather high level. Is it a poem? Is it a drama? It's a compelling story of women claiming more than men had traditionally allowed, and proving their worth. Aurora Leigh is one of the last works that E.B.B. completed before her death at age 55. In her life, she had been nominated to be Poet Laureate of Britain, but that was not to be. This is a book of ideas, and discoveries of what love really is. Another book that explores the indomitable energy of a young girl becoming a woman is Charlotte Perkins Gilman's semi-autobiographical novel Benigna Machiavelli (www.createspace.com/4264375). The girl determines that villains are the interesting characters who get things done, so she decides to be a "good villain."

Mary Shelley wrote Matilda not long after the phenomenal success of her first novel, Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus (www.createspace.com/3683197). However, that publication did not carry her name until the second printing five years later. She sent the manuscript of Matilda to her father, William Godwin, who refused to return it to her, probably because of the intimation of incestuous feelings by a father to a daughter. Whether this was autobiographically based or not, readers would assume the worst. Over a hundred years would pass before Matilda would reach the public. Her parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, were famous radicals. Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist, died shortly after giving birth to Mary. Godwin did remarry, but his interests were with his equals rather than his daughter; he often entertained other leading writers and intellectuals, such as Charles Lamb, Coleridge, Hazlitt - and Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she met when she was 14. At 16, the two of them eloped. On a stormy night on Lake Geneva, Dr. Polidori, Byron, and the Shelleys indulged in a contest to see who could come up with the scariest story - this was the era of the Gothic novel, vampires, and ghosts. And Mary Shelley had just lost her second child. Her contribution to the evening's entertainment was soon turned into the novel Frankenstein, which was an immediate sensation. Innovative in its storyline rather than its style, Frankenstein is sometimes touted as the first true science fiction novel. The Shelleys lived together in various places in Europe for eight years, when Shelley died in a boating accident. Mary turned to writing novels to make her way. True to the Romantic tradition, the short novel Matilda explored human emotions in their depths. Family tragedy, loss, incest, total withdrawal-these themes would have been influenced by the her depression following the loss of her children in early childhood. Only one child would reach adulthood. This intimate story, and later novels were not to recapture the popular imagination as Frankenstein had. She would continue writing historical novels, romantic novels, a travel book, until she died at 54. Though her social concerns remained, her issues did not coincide with her father's ideas. He is known as one of the first to articulate the doctrine of utilitarianism, and he wrote several novels, most notably Caleb Williams, which was written as a plea for social justice. She advocated cooperation rather than confrontation, social reform, vegetarianism, and, unlike her father, advocated for marriage-to which Shelley later agreed. How much of Mary Shelley do we see in this short novel? We can only guess. She grew up during the last days of Napoleon, in an era of ferment, radical thinking, new possibilities for women, and a burgeoning literature of gushing emotion we now call the Romantic Era (some traces of it remain in our cultural life). Two other novels of girls winning against odds are: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Benigna Machiavelli (www.createspace.com/4264375), a young precocious girl who manipulates events to vastly improve her family's chances of happiness. And a novel-length poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (www.createspace.com/3812489)-a half-Italian orphan girl resists the temptation of an easy marriage to pursue a career as a writer.

Dante's putative subject is Beatrice/Love-but the Vita Nuova is really an exercise in poetry: Dante sets the emotional scene for a poem, then he writes the poem, then he explains the poem's structure, part by part. The work shows what we recognize today as a literary attitude, a critical stance on a piece of writing. His precision in thinking about how thoughts ought to be organized may seem pedantic, yet this is the mind that later engaged the question of what Hell might look like, and why and how, not from a religious point of view but as an extended imaginative venture.

Mary Shelley's story of the Frankenstein creature came from Byron's insistence that he and his guests entertain themselves on a rainy day on Lake Geneva with ghost stories. Mary's was by far the most original, and was very popular for its theme of reaching beyond, and possible consequences of such reaching. Her narrative not only documents the scientist but also illuminates the creature's story. The pursuit of the obscured truth may also be found in Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories (www.createspace.com/4185216). As for Mary Shelley, one of her MSS only emerged a hundred years after it was written. Matilda (www.createspace.com/4177083) is a gothic tale of an orphaned girl whose father returns after fifteen years, but then develops a secret malady, which, when Matilda uncovers it, leads to disaster for both.

Why is it that the members of a few families sprouted so many useful and famous careers, such as the Jameses, the Adamses, the Holmeses. And the Beechers. Is it a peculiar gene? Or perhaps the family environment is somehow conducive to genius? Out of eleven (!) children, ten of the Beechers secured a national reputation in one form or another. As I came to know them by their personal statements, I realized that their history was our United States history, not the whole of it, but a major portion of the tides of sentiment and eras of a nation abuilding. This script was produced to honor the Beechers and what they had done that is so little known today. Much of the Nineteenth Century, certainly the era before the War Between the States or the War of Secession (now known as the Civil War, which it was not), is hidden history, yet these events, thse people, laid the foundations for what our culture has become.

For college bookstore discount, go to bandannabooks.com/store.php. Term paper coming up? Don't Panic quickly explains how to: find the hidden thesis in that confusing assignment create (and prove) an Instant Thesis "freewrite" the body of your paper logically structure your paper creat an Instant Introduction and Conclusion out of your thesis simply and easily eliminate the most common writing errors master the format for academic papers quickly add writing style to the paper. "A slender compendium of academic dynamite...a 'must read.' " -- Midwest Book Review For a more direct approach on writing well, consult Book Doc at www.bandannabooks.com/bookdoc.

Sappho was universally recognized by the ancients as the greatest lyric poet. Her lines are spare, bare, and subtle, or as Mosas Hadas put it, "it is ordinary language raised to its highest potential." Alongside the odes to Olympic athletes of Pindar, the wisdom verse of Hesiod, or the epic lays of Homer, Sappho's highly personal poems sound quite modern to our ears. Only a few fragments of her work has survived the centuries, most of them more than one line in length are in this book. The Supplement Edition coordinates with the student text edition, and includes the same poems (www.createspace.com/4185675). This dialogue-style teaching supplement, the Supplement Edition: Sappho: The Poems is arranged by question and answers. Table of Contents Preface for teachers Who was Sappho? Where did Sappho live? Who was in Sappho's family? Map of Aeolian Greek territory What do we know of Sappho's poetry? What was Sappho's school like? What was Sappho's sexual orientation? What makes Sappho's poetry special? What did the ancients think of Sappho? What was the poetry tradition in Lesbos? What was Greek poetry like? What was unique about the Aeolian dialect? What techniques does Sappho use? What was Lesbos culture like What role did Greek women play socially? What about particular poems? BB11. Alkaios: Violet-haired, pure BB12. Ah, the sweet apple that reddens at the tip BB13. Dika, braid your lovely hair BB14. Aphrodite on your shining throne BB21. Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters BB22. The full wine bowl already had BB23. Lucky bridegroom, your wedding day has come BB23. The doorkeeper to the bridal chamber has feet BB24. A messenger came running on powerful legs BB25. Give up groom, we'll camp outside your door BB26. Indeed the stars anywhere near her undisguised brilliance; BB27. You cam. And you did well to come BB28. To me he looks godlike BB30. Anaktoria: Some prize the cavalry, while others favor BB31. Love now shakes my limbs and BB32. Atthis: Even in distant Sardis BB34. So, I'll never see Atthis again BB35. Leave Crete, and come to me here BB36. Mermaids and brine-born Aphrodite, please BB38. Hera, I pray you, may you BB40. I have a little daughter who is like BB41. When our girls were young BB42. Girlhood, girlhood, when you left me BB46. Gongyla, this is surely a sign What is the controversy about Sappho? Who opposed Sappho and why? Did Sappho leap for love? Whom did Sappho influence? What have the modern critics said? What problems in translating Sappho? What English translations of Sappho? What is Sappho's publication history? Bibliography Glossary

The Supplement Edition: Apology of Socrates & The Crito is designed to aid teachers with a wealth of background information and opinions. The Supplement includes the text of the class book Apology of Socrates & The Crito (with the same page numbering), plus the supplement material, with bibliography, glossary, and the text of Xenophon's Apology of Socrates about the same trial from a different point of view. Benjamin Jowett's early translation of Plato's Apology is remarkably free of Victorianisms, and brings to life the figure of Socrates with an easy colloquialism. Almost the entire dialogue is actually a monologue, battling the demons, real or imaginary, that had haunted him for decades. The record we have is Plato's rendition of Socrates' words and the court proceedings. Our best assumption is that Plato himself was there-he places himself as a mute audience member in the dialogue. Are Plato's words direct from Socrates' mouth? Common Greek practice by Herodotus, Thucydides and others, was to recreate scenes or even entire speeches from the past as they might have happened; today we would describe taking those liberties with history as docudrama. The later dialogues that Plato wrote featuring Socrates have led critics to wonder how much in these texts represent Plato, a systematic philosophizer, and how much could be attributed to actual statements made by Socrates, the perennial seeker. Xenophon also wrote a work about the same trial; he was not present. The text of his account, with his interpretation of events, follows the Supplement section; however, the Supplement material in this volume does not deal directly with the Xenophon text. Here are the contents of the Supplementary material: This Supplement is organized around a series of typical student questions; the answers are short paragraphs gleaned from many critical sources, often contradicting each other. Socrates has had perhaps as many critical detractors as proponents down through history, plus a Glossary for Greek names of people, gods, and events, a Bibliography, and the text of Xenophon's Apology of Socrates. PLATO: Supplement Edition: The Apology of Socrates & The Crito. Table of Contents Preface for Teachers What is important about the Apology? What is an apology? Who was Socrates? Who was Plato? Why did Plato write the Apology? Who else wrote firsthand about Socrates? Is Plato's text accurate? What did Socrates' contemporaries say? Why is this trial taking place now? What was the larger political picture? What were the charges against Socrates? How did Socrates defend himself? What is the "Socratic problem"? Why did Socrates attack the early accusers first? Did the Athenians sentence Socrates unjustly? What was the public reaction after the trial? Was Socrates singled out? What do moderns say about Socrates? Did Socrates have a gospel or teaching? Was Socrates anti-democratic? What is the publishing history of the Apology? What is important about the Crito? Bibiography the text of Xenophon's Apology of Socrates Glossary

This Supplement Edition of Areopagitica, designed for teachers or autodidacts, has three elements: the text itself, supplementary material from a number of sources organized around questions that students may ask, such as, What was Milton's early career? Why did he write Areopagitica? What was happening in England at the time? Plus an extensive Notes section for the names and events that Milton mentions, a Bibliography, and a Glossary (ex. "sponge" from spunge, to expunge). 124pp. in all. The printed version lists page numbers. A pdf version with hyperlinks is also available; contact the publisher at bandannabooks.com for information. Here is the Table of Contents for the Supplement Edition. This provides the same text, with the same page numbering, as the student edition, with a wealth of information organized around typical student questions, plus a glossary. Here are the questions: Preface for Teachers Why is Areopagitica important? Who was John Milton? Who was in Milton's family? What was his childhood like? What happened during Milton's college career? How did Milton prepare himself after college? What happened on Milton's trip to Italy? Did Milton change on returning to England? Did Milton marry? What was he writing at this time? Why did Milton use this title? Why did he write Areopagitica? What was the public reaction to Areopagitica? What did the early critics say about Milton? Why was England in a turmoil in the 1640s? What did King Charles expect to achieve? What was the Long Parliament? How did Cromwell rise to prominence? How had the press been restricted? What points does Milton make? Who states the other side of the argument? What is special about printing? How many people could read? Is freedom of the press the same as freedom of speech? Is freedom of the press a dead issue? What books were in Milton's library? Is Milton's style important? What do modern critics say? Was Milton borne out by history? What was the printing history of Areopagitica? What happened in Milton's later life? Bibiography Notes to the text Glossary

The Supplement Edition of Leaves of Grass includes the text, a supplement section of typical questions, such as What did the first readers say? What were Whitman's influences?, plus a bibliography of Whitman's own work and critics of his work, glossary for terms not in modern use. Also appended is the last statement that Whitman made about the writing of Leaves of Grass, called A Backward Glance Over Traveled Roads (1888). 246pp. For an interactive pdf version, go to www.bandannabooks.com/ebooks/leavessuppeb.php The original edition of Leaves of Grass had just 95 pages of poetry, and a lengthy introduction. The only titles were "Leaves of Grass" or a marker, indicating a new poem. The original book listed no author, with a small engraving of himself in a loose open shirt and tipped hat, one hand on hip, the other in his pocket (to "loafe" at that time meant to be seen idling stylishly about town). The engraving by Samuel Hollyer was based on a photo by Gabriel Harrison (a common printing conversion by skilled professionals in the pre-digital age). Whitman's experience as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle observing the American scene and his patroitic bombast of, for example, the "America" essay that opens this book, led him to use the longest breath-line in poetry until Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan. This poetic line allowed him to speak as a visionary poet of Biblical stature with remark-able candor, and he continues to stand at the center of American literature a hundred years after his death. Why should we read the first edition, long before the famous Lincoln and Civil War poetry? This edition shows the freshness of Whitman's creative breakthrough-for the first time he finds/invents an appropriate form, and he gets a handle on his true subject. This book marks his emergence from the wilderness. Whitman himself designed the book and set the type for the first edition. He set no poem titles other than the phrase "Leaves of Grass," placed at the heads of major sections, and we follow that design. This edition retains the universal "he," which Whitman uses liberally throughout.

Benigna Machiavelli has never before been published in its entirety in book form. It was first published by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in The Forerunner (Vol. 5, 1914), a magazine which she wrote, edited, and produced every month from 1906 to 1916. The novella was serialized a chapter an issue. The Forerunner cost $1.00 per issue, and was in a 7" x 10", 28-page format. The circulation averaged 1,500 subscribers a year, including many in Europe, also some in India and Australia. Gilman stated she did not "aim in the least at literary virtuosity," she was interested in ideas. The main idea expressed in Benigna is the story of a benign Machiavellian girl/woman, a "good villain," as Benigna phrases it. Having noted in the stories she read as a child that the villains exerted their intellects to accomplish their goals, while the heroes were "mostly very stupid" and practiced passive virtues, Benigna decides to apply her precocious mind to become this "good villain"-all for everyone's good, of course, at least as Benigna sees it. She responds to the sometimes onerous and perplexing life circumstances she observes herself to be in by deciding to take control of her life in highly creative (and manipulative) ways- at a time when women, and especially children, had very little control. Benigna is an intensely insightful child, as was no doubt Gilman herself. How much of this story is based on her own life experiences is difficult to say; however there are many similarities. In her autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she recounts the anecdote of the experiment to see what would happen if she broke the oppressive silence of her schoolroom, just as Benigna does (and with the same results). It's likely that much of Benigna's character is based on her own, doubtless with some amount of wishful thinking that she had as successfully taken as much control of her own life. The family portrayed bears little resemblance to Gilman's, with the exception of the mother. Gilman had one sibling, a brother, Thomas A. Perkins, 14 months her senior, with whom she was not close. Her father, Frederick Beecher Perkins, left the family when Gilman was an infant and was infrequently in contact with them. However, her mother, Mary Wescott Perkins, described by Gilman as "absolutely loyal, as loving as a spaniel which no ill treatment can alienate," accurately describes Benigna's mother as well. Also similarly, Mary Wescott Perkins was intensely interested in "child culture," and had studied the Kindergarten method of child raising. Another direct parallel to Gilman's life is Benigna's happily-ever-after ending, her marriage to her cousin. Gilman married her first cousin, George Houghton Gilman, seven years her junior. Unlike Benigna, this was her second marriage and, by her account, finally a happy one. In her autobiography she wrote, "We were married... and lived happily ever after. If this were a novel, now, here's the happy ending." Although at present best known for her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," a fictionalized account of her devastating first marriage, in her time Charlotte Perkins Gilman was known internationally as a lecturer and author of Women and Economics: The Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution, that went through nine printings from 1898 to 1920. William Dean Howells said of her: "The best brains and best profile of any woman in America." As a follow-up to this book, Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning tells the tale of an orphaned half-Italian girl who rejects marriage to a rich cousin whom she likes very much, in order to make her own way in the world, and does successfully. (www.createspace.com/3812489)

In the sixteenth century, a group of Renaissance Italians sat down together to revive the lost art of Greek and Roman drama, as part of the great rebirth of learning that had already revolutionized the arts of painting, poetry, architecture. To name this "new" art, they used the word for any general work of art, opus, the plural in Latin being "opera." Opera today is experiencing another revival. Works by American composers such as Philip Glass and John Adams now stand alongside the great Italian, Russian, German, French operas. The repertoire is not closed, and the industry-singers, orchestras, stage designers, opera houses, publishers, and opera-goers-flourishes around the world. This little book is offered as a compendium of Italian terms describing the techniques and refinements that propelled this art into an enduring position among the arts. Italian terms are explained in English. Also, Italian poetry in English: Dante and His Circle (www.createspace.com/4024060) Vita Nuova (Dante on Beatrice) Ovid, The Changes (web only: www.bandannabooks.com/ovid). And Shakespeare plays with Italian settings: Two Gentlemen of Verona (www.createspace.com/3724080) The Merchant of Venice (www.createspace.com/3727221) The Taming of the Shrew (www.createspace.com/3718477) Romeo and Juliet (www.createspace.com/3892597)

Edgar Allan Poe invented and perfected the model for modern detective fiction, including Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and many others. The formula: an extremely intelligent amateur sleuth out-thinks the official police, with a story often narrated by his not-so-bright companion. In Poe's case, he set the scene in Paris, with French characters. His three stories - The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter were set as a series, each succeeding one referring to the previous. But, despite the immediate popularity of the genre, Poe moved on to other fiction and poetry experiments. The three stories together elaborate on the psychological analysis that Poe saw as relevant to human life. If everybody believes something, he concluded, it must be wrong. He goes into a trait that distinguishes humans from all other animals -- the ability to see into the minds of others, anticipating their motives and actions. The introduction by Sasha Newborn is peppered with comments from critics and psychologists alike as to the meaning of Poe's contribution. This unique genre has lasted over a hundred and fifty years and occupies a large section in most bookstores; the appetite for such fascinating stories seems to be unending. Another novel that highlights the reach, or overreach, of reason, is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (www.createspace.com/3683197. Three characters, the captain, Victor Frankenstein, and the Creature himself all seek to know or to do more than is considered possible.

Sappho was perhaps the originator of the personal poetry genre. She lived on Lesbos a hundred years before the rise of Athens to pre-eminence. Long after her death, Plato praised her work as that of the Tenth Muse. Later eras, especially the early Christian church, saw her work as abominable because she dealt openly with sex and with feelings, so that her work was almost totally obliterated. A few new pieces emerged in 1950. Many poets have undertaken to translate her work. Sasha Newborn's version is personable, not academic. A Teacher's edition, the Supplement Edition of Sappho (www.createspace.com/3683159), contains a wealth of critical comment and background information on Sappho, her poetry, and her times; this was also compiled by Sasha Newborn. Sappho spoke in Aeolian Greek, and developed musical modes as well. She ran a school for girls that involved performances, presumably of her work as well as others, which would have combined dance, music, and poetry. Unlike the other great Greek poets, she did not write epics, only a few laudatory odes, and no drinking songs. Her delicately nuanced lines convey much more than the words on the page; one might call it an openness to life. Another book that centers on love, from the male perspective, is Dante and His Circle (www.createspace.com/4024060), poetry by the young Dante and more than a dozen Italian poets reviving and refining the rediscovery of love that the Troubadours had celebrated.

As a young poet, Dante Alighieri was at the center of a new attitude sweeping through Italy and southern France. Poets and artists were awakening from a thousand-year yoke we now call the Middle Ages. Giotto showed the way in art by painting real people in his allegorical scenes; Dante used vernacular or street language to write down his actual feelings. And a new subject drove these and other passionate artists: Love. Who were the poets of Dante's circle? This edition of Dante and His Circle is based upon an imaginative recreation of a cultural and intellectual ferment at the birth of a national literature. Dante Gabriel Rossetti brought together poetry of the friends and antagonists of Dante-in particular the poems of the flamboyant Guido Cavalcanti, the staid Cino da Pistoia, and the outrageous Cecco Angiolieri, with many others-and including the curious work of the youthful Dante called the Vita Nuova (The New Life, or My Young Life; available separately), which itself is the subject of comments by Dante's poetic friends. Dante's putative subject is Beatrice/Love-but the Vita Nuova is really an exercise in poetry: Dante sets the emotional scene for a poem, then he writes the poem, then he explains the poem's structure, part by part. Dante himself later became uncomfortable with this work of youth, but he did not disown it. This selected edition of Dante and His Circle concentrates on the eternal theme of Love, leaving aside poems relating to the wars and politics of the time. Love as a subject of serious public discussion signaled the emerging Renaissance, not just a rediscovery of the glories of ancient Greece and Rome, but a new sensibility finding-no-building a platform for personal expression and interchange. Besides the Vita Nuova, Rossetti arranged some poetic exchanges between Dante and Guido Cavalcanti. The Vita Nuova is also available as a stand-alone volume (www.createspace.com/3683218). The woman's perspective on love may have best been told by Sappho (www.createspace.com/4185675), who invented lyric poetry - and what we now know as the guitar pick!

For the college bookstore discount, apply to for the discount code. The original edition of Leaves of Grass had just 95 pages of poetry, and a lengthy introduction. The only titles were "Leaves of Grass" or a marker, indicating a new poem. The original book listed no author, with a small engraving of himself in a loose open shirt and tipped hat, one hand on hip, the other in his pocket (to "loafe" at that time meant to be seen idling stylishly about town). The engraving by Samuel Hollyer was based on a photo by Gabriel Harrison (a common printing conversion by skilled professionals in the pre-digital age). Whitman's experience as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle observing the American scene and his patroitic bombast of, for example, the "America" essay that opens this book, led him to use the longest breath-line in poetry until Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan. This poetic line allowed him to speak as a visionary poet of Biblical stature with remark-able candor, and he continues to stand at the center of American literature a hundred years after his death. Why should we read the first edition, long before the famous Lincoln and Civil War poetry? This edition shows the freshness of Whitman's creative breakthrough-for the first time he finds/invents an appropriate form, and he gets a handle on his true subject. This book marks his emergence from the wilderness. Whitman himself designed the book and set the type for the first edition. He set no poem titles other than the phrase "Leaves of Grass," placed at the heads of major sections, and we follow that design. Teachers and serious readers may be interested in the Supplement Edition of Leaves of Grass (www.createspace.com/3675901). This volume contains a wealth of information, critical comments and background on Whitman. Also, a freebie: A Backward Glance over Traveled Roads, in which Whitman remembers how he came to write and publish Leaves of Grass. Download from www.bandannabooks.com/free/whitmanglance.zip

Blake's notebooks after his death disclose an unfinished poem titled "The Everlasting Gospel." The message of the poem is enduring, and presents a humanist document with few parallels and perhaps no predecessors. Blake's personality was seen by his contemporaries as part genius, part naïf-just the combination to touch areas of sensibility remote from the rest of us. But in fact good and evil are not at all remote, they are simply removed from our daily considerations. To live with such consciousness, and with such conviction to shout against the platitudes of our lives, may be possible only for such a personality. Blake's ability to step outside the conventional thinking of his day (and of ours) gave him a point of view from which he could critically re-evaluate cherished values and expectations of the Christian tradition, such as good and evil.

New! Compare this edition with six others at http: //www.bandannabooks.com/vsghalib.php. Ghalib, a court poet in India during the period of British takeover, excelled in poetry both in Urdu and Persian. Ghazals are a poetry genre with couplets gathered that share a common theme but do not form a narrative sequence. With these two-liners, Ghalib was a master. His subjects range from personal to cosmic, and includes his metaphoric "love affair" with God, in which he protests the neglect or spurning by The Beloved. Ghalib lived by his wits, with cleverness and astuteness. He did not regard himself as a mystic, yet he marvels at the wonders of existence. Ghalib's work gives a sense of the state of India as it came under the British. He himself was not political; Gandhi came to represent that dimension of Indian philosophy with satyagraha. Gandhi's best thought might be seen in Gandhi on the Gita (Bhagavad Gita) (www.createspace.com/4035181).

Gandhi used his time in prison corresponding with followers. One asked about the ethical questions in the Bhagavad Gita, and Gandhi replied to this, and to other questions. Finally, he put together his comments and analysis of the lessons that Krishna was sharing with Arjuna in a little book, his most concise expression of this Hindu holy book as he understood it. After his autobiography, this may be the closest record of Gandhi's spiritual understanding. A sample chapter is available at www.bandannabooks.com/free/gandhisample.zip. For a different view on the Indian subcontinent, you might like Ghazals of Ghalib, a 19th-century poet who wrote in Persian and Urdu. His ghazals are witty, self-revealing, thoughtful. He lived through the Sepoy Mutiny and the British Raj, asking Queen Victoria to support poetry as the rajahs had done, by direct donation.

The power of pi is not immedately evident from a glance at this small Greek letter. Yet the existence of pi has confounded mathematicians and engineers for centuries. What does it mean to have a real number that cannot be stated exactly? What is a number that does not appear to have any recurring pattern? And why does it crop up in unexpected places that have no apparent connection with the circumference of a circle? These questions are not answered in this book, but you do get a glimpse of the phenomenon-real numbers to grapple with. A bit of the history of pi. And a program designed to generate as many digits as you'd like.

The trial of Socrates is one of the most famous of history. He was adjudged to be guilty, and sentenced to death. Though he could easily have escaped from Athens with the help of friends eager to help, he explains in The Crito that it would be opposed to everything he stood for to run away, that he would abide by the decision. This dialogue of Plato, who wrote from the position of an observer at the trial, is the most revealing of the innermost mind of one of the greatest thinkers in human history. His technique during the trial, if representative of his teaching, remains with us today as "the socratic method." On the other hand, we may have Plato to thank for that. Since Socrates himself never wrote anything, or nothing has come down in history as his own writing, we must take Plato's word for it. The Crito is another good example of the Socratic dialogue, leading from one point to another in the pursuit of truth. Teachers should be aware that a Supplement Edition is available as well, with a lot of additional material at www.createspace.com/3677227.

This book is not just a story told by one of the world's greatest storytellers. The real story here is Leo Tolstoy's stubborn insistence on uncovering what was said and what happened. It wasn't the first time that Tolstoy stood alone. In writing this book he attacks Christ-centered churches for their one big lie-the claim that the Bible, the whole Bible, is sacred. This claim has led Christians ever since in the wrong direction, and he describes why. The Russian Orthodox Church responded by excommunicating Tolstoy. A hundred years have passed since Tolstoy produced this little book. Christian churches still abound, each basing itself on a truth that denies truth to other churches and sects. Tolstoy did not limit his accusation to the Russian Orthodox Church, though, as a Russian, he naturally focuses on its peculiarities in his preface. Tolstoy's synoptic Gospel was a bombshell when it was written. The book was banned in Russia even before publication; consequently its first edition was printed in Switzerland by an exile Russian press, in an incomplete version. Translations aplenty followed-but in Russia itself, this book was not officially available. Tolstoy himself was not surprised at the book banning. In his study of the Christian tradition, Tolstoy had found that religion was indeed alive, but not in the churches. It was alive in the fields, in the faith of the common people, the serfs and peasants of Russia. And it was for them that Count Leo Tolstoy abandoned writing his great novels to uncover the truth of Jesus' teaching, as much as may now be known of it from the generally accepted gospel accounts. His method was simple: Throw out the garbage. That meant specifically the parts that have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus' teaching-all the miracle stories that had been added to win over the doubtful, all the interpretations of one point of view or another that were added later-especially those of Paul-and any suggestion of a resurrection. One churchly principle that Tolstoy demolished was the idea that most of the books of ''the Bible" had anything to do with Jesus, other than to justify after the fact an old Jewish prophetic tradition namely, Messiahship- that Jesus himself did not consider important. Especially noxious to Tolstoy was the notion that the Bible was sacred, the Word of God. In the course of history, great wrongs have been committed in the name of Christianity, based on one or another passage found in the Bible, a book which, after all, tells the stories of a thousand years of the ethical development of a barbarous people. In Tolstoy's view this Bible-holiness is simply a perversion. Tolstoy's uncompromising mind brought him to conclusions not shared by the great majority of his fellows; this in no way distracted him, but rather deepened his commitment toward humanity. Struggling in the same social ferment of injustice in Russia that gave rise to Nihilism, Anarchism, and Communism, Tolstoy and Tolstoyan Christians worked to solve social problems with a religious answer. History took a different turn, but the influence of Tolstoy in the last years of his life was enormous and worldwide. In this translation I have relied throughout on the Soviet Complete Written Works of Tolstoy, Volume 24, published in Moscow during Khrushchev's Thaw period in 1957 under the auspices of the State Editorial Commission. This book of Tolstoy's is a great humanist document, in which an uncompromising mind brings freshness to a great human teaching.

The third writer under the pseudonym "Publius" actually began the series of discussions about the recently concluded Constitutional Convention, although he became ill, and ultimately ended with one long essay. This volume includes other commentaries by Jay, who ended up serving as the very first Supreme Court Justice, in part correspondence with the new President, George Washington, his colleague Alexander Hamilton, with various rulings, judgments, decisions that set the Supreme Court on its important role as "referee" when constituents disagreed.