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Average customer rating:

Easily the funniest of DWJ's books
A worthy sequel. Too bad the storyline wasn't as good as some books I've read.
Wow!
Non-stop action and hilarity
I love griffins...

Year of the Griffin
Diana Wynne Jones
Manufacturer: HarperTeen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Dark Lord of Derkholm
Castle in the Air (rpkg)
The Merlin Conspiracy
Deep Secret
Howl's Moving Castle

ASIN: 006447335X
Release Date: 2001-08-07

Amazon.com

In the very strange Pilgrim Parties of Diana Wynne Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm, tourists from the next universe would come to wizards' lands expecting to have exciting battles with dwarfs, dragons, and the powers of darkness. Sadly, wizards were forced to host these hokey yet horrific pseudoadventures, and in the process, laid waste to their lands. But as its sequel Year of the Griffin begins, we learn with some relief that the mercenary Mr. Chesney's magic tours had ended eight years previous. While that is excellent news, the Wizards' University is now decidedly short of funds.

Wavy-blond-haired Professor Corkoran has plenty of schemes for extracting money from his students' families. But he always has plenty of ideas, and none of them work. Besides, he is too busy researching how to be the first man to walk on the moon to do much of anything else. As his new crop of students shows up, Corkoran is in for a surprise. Not only do none of them have any money, but one is a huge griffin, "brightly golden in fur and crest and feathers, so sharply curved of beak, and so fiercely alert in her round orange eyes that at first sight she seemed to fill a room." (Meet Elda, softhearted yet gigantic daughter of Wizard Derk.)

The hilarious goings-on begin when Corkoran's moneymaking schemes backfire horribly, and the motley crew of would-be wizards begin their studies. Comical tableaux involving spells that create deep pits and smelly winged monkeys alternate with suspenseful (yet always amusing) scenes involving tiny assassins who mean business. Jones's satirical pokes at academia, racial intolerance (the greenish and jinxed Claudia has mixed blood), and hierarchical societies (Ruskin is bucking the tyranny of the forgemasters to become the first dwarf wizard) keep the story lively, as do the realistic portrayals of her very odd and endearing cast of characters. You definitely don't have to have read Dark Lord to enjoy this wonderful sequel, but you may not be able to resist going back to it. (Ages 12 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description

It is eight years after the tours from offworld have stopped. High Chancellor Querida has retired, leaving Wizard Corkoran in charge of the Wizards' University. Although Wizard Corkoran's obsession is to be the first man on the moon, and most of his time is devoted to this project, he decides he will teach the new first years himself in hopes of currying the favor of the new students' families--for surely they must all come from wealth, important families--and obtaining money for the University (which it so desperately needs). But Wizard Corkoran is dismayed to discover that one of those students--indeed, one he had such high hopes for, Wizard Derk's own daughter Elda--is a hugh golden griffin, and that none of the others has any money at all.

Wizard Corkoran's money-making scheme backfires, and when Elda and her new friends start working magic on their own, the schemes go wronger still. And when, at length, Elda ropes in her brothers Kit and Blade to send Corkoran to the moon...well...life at the Wizards' University spins magically and magnificently out of control.

This breathtakingly brilliant sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm is all one would expect from this master of genre.

Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL) andBest Children's Books 2000 (PW)

Customer Reviews:

Easily the funniest of DWJ's books.......2007-02-05

I've been rereading most of Ms. Jones' books in order to find a phrase I remember but can't place. In the last week I've read Deep Secret, The Merlin Conspiracy, Archer's Goon, Mixed Magics, the second Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and now Year of the Griffin. While all these books are entertaining and fun, Year of the Griffin is the one that is consistently amusing to the laugh-out-loud point. I think this may be because so many of the 'main' characters have such sarcastic attitudes. Everyone has a quip for the occasion.

A worthy sequel. Too bad the storyline wasn't as good as some books I've read........2006-01-05

This is indeed a good book. I especially like the griffins. They're cool & cool looking and they contribute a lot to this book. My favorite is Elsa because she is cute and brave enough to do the right thing no matter how dangerous it may be. Next is Callette-she's a gruff girl who won't take s**t from nobody and is very big, strong, fast and beautiful. But that's enough of that, even though there are more characters I like, including more griffins. I must tell you the storyline, and I told you the top 2 anyway. The characters from Dark Lord Of Derkholm are trying to attend college but there is a problem: A band of assassins are after them and they're teachers & friends and won't stop until all of them are dead. On top of that, there are some evil griffins coming along, intent on being as sadistically cruel as possible(Crap, you'd think the lot of them were trying to top the evil monster people in "House Of 1,000 Corpses! No, I didn't see it, but I know what it's about)Soon there is a lot of mayhem as well as brutal fighting, and throughout the book you will wonder if the evil can be put to an end. It's a great book, and I like it, but since the storyline is decent but doesn't come anywhere near other storylines I've found in books/comicbooks/movies/video games/ancient mythology, minus one star. Nevertheless, if you need a book to read then buy this one. It is, as seen in the title, a worthy sequel. 'Specially since the cool griffins are part lion(my favorite animal)and part eagle(my 3nd favorite bird next to the falcon & the hawk)Anyway I enjoyed this novel & so will you if in the right mood.

Wow!.......2005-08-07

I really enjoyed this book. Whilst I do think that the end of the book was rather sketchy...literally, in that the author didn't wrap things up properly, I really enjoyed the rest of the book. I've read this book a couple of times through the years, and I find it really worth reading, even for adults. I like the way the story makes you think about more than just getting through the average fluff novel. DWJ almost always manages to tuck in a bit of philosophy and a bit of satire which makes her books really enjoyable.

Non-stop action and hilarity.......2005-06-28

The Wizards' University is short of money. Now that Mr Chesney's offworld tours have stopped, money from tourism has dried up. Eight years after Mr Chesney's departure, High Chancellor Querida has left Wizard Derk and his family to run the world and the good-looking Wizard Corkoran to run the University. Having chosen for himself the students whom he thinks are the richest, Corkoran sends begging letters to their parents. But he is in for a shock, for he discovers, after the letters have been sent, that Wizard Derk's daughter Elda is a huge golden griffin, King Luther's son is penniless, the Emperor's sister has been disowned by the Senate, while the dwarf, far from being in possession of a treasure hoard, is a runaway slave.

An even worse shock comes with the first reply from a student's family--in the form of assassins. The situation quickly hurtles out of control.

Year of the Griffin is a sequel to the award-winning The Dark Lord of Derkholm and is every bit as hilarious, with non-stop action that keeps the reader turning the pages, eager to know what happens next. While it isn't necessary to have read The Dark Lord of Derkholm first, I think it's a good idea.

Elda is just as she appears in the first book and has to be one of the most lovable non-human characters Diana Wynne Jones has created--and she is a master at creating such characters. Like all of DWJ's books, Year of the Griffin makes a great read for adults as well as young people. A quote from the Independent appears on the front cover: "Knocks all rivals into a witch's cocked hat." While this is arguable, there are definitely not many writers of fantasy for young people who can match DWJ.

I love griffins..........2005-05-28

... although I still haven't quite figured out in my head how their beaks move then they talk because we use lips to form words and they don't have any.

Anyways, this is the sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm (which you really should read first), and although different in quality is equally as entertaining. I loved seeing the familiar characters pop in and out, and getting updates on them. Although I would have liked to see more of them, I hardly noticed as we were busy getting to know a whole new cast of intriguing character... Elda's new classmates.

I took this book up in the evening just before bedtime. Always a bad idea. I was reading all night! I thought I would have enough self control to stop after a chapter or so but Diana Wynne Jones had me hooked. Right from our first meeting with Elda's new classmates, I was already laughing out loud.

Instead of the questing and defeating the enemies tone of the first book, this book focused more on renewal and growth, of both Elda and her classmate friends, as well as of the University. And as I mentioned before, it was great to hear of all the familiar faces.

I long for a third book from this world! Her fan website says she has promised her sister that she will write one. Can't wait!

Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton

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A Wonderful Look at Merton's Final Years
An excellent book on Hermitage years of Merton
The real scoop on Merton's "affair" and his last years

Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton
John Howard Griffin
Manufacturer: Orbis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Merton: A Biography
Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision
The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey (Merton, Thomas//Journal of Thomas Merton)
The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton
The Sign of Jonas

ASIN: 0883448475

Customer Reviews:

A Wonderful Look at Merton's Final Years.......2000-05-07

I purchased this book after reading the review from the reader in New Orleans. This is a loving look at the final years of Thomas Merton's life. (1965 - 1968) I have only recently delved into the writings and life of this incredible man. John Howard Griffin was a close friend of Merton's and writes about his friend from within Merton's hermitage and Merton's personal journals. It is a shame that Grifffin's health prevented him from completing what was to be an authorized biography of this fascinating mystical monk. The photographs taken by Griffin are a terrific addition to a very readable book on a man and a spititual figure that I greatly admire. If you have any interest in Thomas Merton the man, then you will cherish this book. One of Griffin's lines is a nice summary of Merton, if Merton can be summarized - "What mattered was to love and to be in one piece in silence and not to try to be anybody outwardly".

An excellent book on Hermitage years of Merton.......1999-07-29

This book does an excellent job in pointing out some of the real stuggles of Thomas Merton. It is very helpful in seeking to understand the person Thomas Merton. If one reads Merton, it is evident that Merton loved God and was committed to his vocation. However, it is very clear in this work that love for God and commitment to vocation does not eliminate personal struggles with right and wrong. Griffin does a good job showing a side of Merton that so many seek to ignore. Also, the book has many good pictures. This is a good book to read.

The real scoop on Merton's "affair" and his last years.......1999-07-09

This book is a must-read for those seeking to understand the final years of Merton, whose importance for contemporary spirituality cannot be underestimated. Based on Merton's own journals (to which Griffin had full access during extended stays in Merton's hermitage after the latter's untimely death in 1968), the material in this book was originally intended to be part of the officially authorized Merton biography, which ill health prevented Griffin from completing. This book is not for those whose love of Merton is confined to such early works as The Seven Storey Mountain and The Sign of Jonas. However, those who seek insights into the struggles underlying the writings he produced from 1965-68, encompassing subjects such as the Vietnam war, the evils of racism, and the practice of Zen, are likely to find this book very rewarding. John Howard Griffin (author of Black Like Me) was an excellent writer in his own right, a skilled photographer, and a friend of Merton. All three of these characteristics contribute to Follow the Ecstasy, which includes a number of intimate photographs of Merton and his hermitage. Griffin's own contemplative bent shows itself in empathic descriptions of Merton's hermit existence, with well-chosen quotations from the monk's journals. Of particular interest to some will be the very detailed account of Merton's extended involvement with a young nurse he encountered while hospitalized following back surgery. This relationship, which is referred to in very vague and sometimes sinister-sounding terms in other works on Merton, is laid bare here in all its emotional splendor. Those who love Merton may be astonished at both his vulnerability and his capacity for self-deception. For most of us, to fall deeply in love with a young woman whose feelings are reciprocal, and to arrange trysts that do not include sexual consummation of such love, would not constitute a major moral dilemma. But most of us are not world-renowned spiritual writers vowed to lives of celibate chastity. To top it all off, Merton had only recently (the year was 1966) been granted long-sought permission to live as a hermit on an isolated piece of monastery property, in order to deepen his experience of solitude. Anyone who has ever fallen in love can identify with much of what Merton went through, but few can ever have known the exquisite anguish engendered by his circumstances at the time. It is almost comical at times how he struggles both to rationalize his behavior and to see through his own rationalizations. He is a man deeply and painfully torn. On the one side, he is beset by a tide of emotions he has never before experienced and is ill-prepared to handle, while on the other, he is solemnly vowed to a life he not only loves, but believes is his divinely given vocation. Although some would be scandalized by such revelations, others will see in them yet another poignant example of the divine mystery played out in the arena of human affairs. What Griffin makes clear is that Merton fully expected this episode to become public knowledge after his death, and that he wanted those who might have idolized him to see him, warts and all, in all his human frailty. It is plain that Merton was less interested in adulation than in honesty, even regarding events in his life that show him in a less than flattering light. If there was some degree of duplicity in the machinations he undertook for the sake of spending time with his beloved, I believe it is offset by his ultimate fidelity to his Beloved. Griffin handles all of this with consummate sensitivity and grace, explicitly noting that he obtained full permission from the woman in question prior to publishing details of her relationship with this celebrated monk. Although this chapter alone, with its touching descriptions of Merton's internal spiritual combat, would've made the book worthwhile for me, there are gems scattered throughout, and an informative introduction by Robert Bonazzi. A must for real fans and/or scholars of Thomas Merton.

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11,000 Years Lost, But Never Alone
Perfect Ending
A gripping story testing her survival skills

11,000 Years Lost
Peni R. Griffin
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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Claire by Moonlight
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The Book Thief (Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature (Awards))
What the Moon Saw

ASIN: 0810948222

Book Description

What does it mean if you die before you were born?

An eleven-year-old Texan girl finds out what it was like to live in the Ice Age in this action-packed time-travel adventure. As Esther participates in an archaeological dig in Texas, she is accidentally transported back in time. Living among the Clovis, the mammoth hunters, she learns of a very different childhood in which play is practice for survival and humans are prey for megafauna-scimitar cats, giant bears, and others. Will she ever get back to her own time?

Peni R. Griffin has delivered her greatest time-travel story yet, a thrill-a-page adventure that's also an affecting look at family and what makes a home. Kids will be riveted by this richly imagined vision of prehistoric North America from a writer whose work has been called "expertly plotted" (Kirkus Reviews) and "fascinating" (Booklist).

Discoveries of early American artifacts, clues to this little-known time, appear in the news frequently. The detailed bibliography in this book invites young readers toread and, like Esther, make discoveries of their own. AUTHOR BIO: Peni R. Griffin has written many award-winning novels for middle-grade and young-adult readers. The Switching Well was a finalist for the Golden Spur Award, and The Ghost Sitter was an Edgar finalist and a Golden Sower nominee. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Customer Reviews:

11,000 Years Lost, But Never Alone.......2006-09-03

I just finished reading this book. The story takes place in modern and ice age times. Esther, who is from the modern finds an clovis point and from shortly after that point she is pulled back in time to the ice age. When she arrives, she must learn to survive and survive she does thanks to her clovis family that takes her in and teaches her. She will learn to hunt all types of animal and pick the right plants, make clothes, and tools. She will do this all, yet she will come to love her family that has taken her in to become part of them.

I found this to be a great read. I would recommend it to anyone of any age. Have a great read!!

Perfect Ending.......2004-11-13

The book, 11,000 Years Lost, is about a girl,
Esther, who accidentally travels to 11,000 years
ago! She was helping some archeologists with a
site near her home when she walks through a
shimmering patch of air and arrives in the past.
She was taken in by a family group who was near
the place she appeared and she was thought of as
a star-child. She started to understand their
language and rituals after a while. All of the
hunters thought that she was good luck, even
though she knew it was not true. She goes through
countless hardships and joys on her way to try to
get home. To learn more, read the book.
I liked this book. It was not exactly a page
turner, but it certainly was not boring. It
taught me a little about ancient history and what
it would have possibly been like 11,000 years
ago, too. The ending was perfect. It kept me
wondering what had happened to her family group,
but some books should keep you wondering. This
book was not the best book I have ever read, but
it was pretty good. If you like historical
fiction or drama, you would definitely like this
book. FROM FLAMINGNET.COM
For more preteen and young adult book reviews visit www.flamingnet.com

A gripping story testing her survival skills.......2004-11-07

Texas history, time travel, and lessons on family trees blend in the engrossing novel by Penni R. Griffin 11,000 Years Lost. Pre-teen Ester discovers an 11,000 year old spearhead once used by mammoth hunters during an archaeological dig: an artifact when opens a time portal and lands Esther in Ice Age Texas. Adopted by a group of mammoth hunters, she must learn to survive in a very different society and find a way home simultaneous in a gripping story testing her survival skills. Two of Peni R. Griffin's previous books have been nominees for Edgar Awards and 11,000 Years Lost joins their gripping action.

Sermons to the People: Advent, Christmas, New Year's, Epiphany

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Patience Rewarded
A Thoroughly Modern Augustine Does Advent

Sermons to the People: Advent, Christmas, New Year's, Epiphany
Augustine of Hippo
Manufacturer: Image
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

The Life We Claim: The Apostles' Creed for Preaching, Teaching, And Worship
Keeping in Touch: Christian Formation and Teaching
02. St. Augustine: The First Catechetical Instruction (Ancient Christian Writers)
Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
The Church As Learning Community: A Comprehensive Guide to Christian Education

ASIN: 0385503113
Release Date: 2002-10-15

Book Description

A superb new translation brings the words of Augustine the preacher stirringly to life!

When the great Saint Augustine was called from his country home to become Bishop of Hippo in the fourth century, his new responsibilities took him away from the solitude of his writing and into the glare of the public eye. The author of two of the greatest works of religious literature, Confessions and City of God, Augustine became a shepherd to the people, inspiring and enlightening them with his sermons. His skills as a speaker were as great–if not greater–than his skills as a writer. According to his friend Possidius, “Those who read what Augustine wrote on the divine topics do get something out of them. But those who saw and heard him in person–they were the ones who got heaven and Earth.”

Sermons to the People collects the homilies on the liturgical seasons of the Church Saint Augustine delivered over the course of his lifetime. This Image edition includes the first sermons in that vast collection: from Advent, Christmas, New Year’s, and the Epiphany. Newly translated by William Griffin, they address timeless concerns, including the problems of materialism and the intellectual difficulties of faith. Griffin renders the sermons with such immediacy, it is as though he had been present when Augustine spoke to his flock.

Customer Reviews:

Patience Rewarded.......2006-01-05

"He'd never left that holy state while He was appearing to us as we were; that heavenly power was added to an infant body, and yet the earth's resources weren't any poorer...To them it's just plain embarrassing that God should walk around in a funny, ill-fitting body. To us, of course, it's a greatly encouraging sight." p 57

Griffen has compiled a rich resource of the reflections of one of the Church's great minds on one of the Church's great narratives. In a time of pithy refrains and a secular hijack of our season of worship this book is a refreshing resource. It just takes a little patience to get there. By a regrettable editorial choice he opens with a 47 page sermon on the genealogies and inner-marital chastity that Augustine was literally preaching for the second time because the first time he tried it his audience largely fell asleep - not good times. The sermons that follow however, soar with rich reflections on the temporal genesis of the God-man and the sublime intersection of the celestial and corporeal in the event of the incarnation.

One other note is that Griffen takes his `paraphrase translation' liberties to Eugene Petersonesqe extents. His adaptation of Augustine's Latin is often compelling but is sometimes just so contemporary that it seems a bit absurd or anachronistic. Regardless, these would be fantastic readings to integrate into either Protestant or Catholic reflections during the Advent/Christmas season. If you hunger for insights beyond `Jesus is the Reason for the Season' to center you on the Truth at the heart the Christian adaptation of the winter holiday, this is a great place to start...particularly around page 50.

A Thoroughly Modern Augustine Does Advent.......2002-11-24

There's no place like Hippo for the holidays. Especially when it's the turn of the fifth century and you've gotten yourself over to the cathedral early enough to score a good spot for the bishop's Mass. I'm telling you, that guy can flat-out preach.

Fast-forward 16 centuries. Many familiar with St. Augustine know him from his greatest written works, The Confessions and The City of God. Both are bedrocks in the Western literary canon, fussed over by students not only of literature, but also of history, philosophy and theology. But how many of us, his fawning fans included, know what it was like to have your ears tickled by the very voice of Christendom's greatest genius?

William Griffin thinks he has a pretty good idea. And he does a fine and fun job of putting his insights across in these translations of Augustine's Christmas-season sermons.

This is Augustine like you've never read him. Glib, pointed, playful, colloquial, streetwise: He'll say whatever needs to be said to get you to let the facts of Christ's coming open your mind, penetrate your heart and change your life. And, true to form, for all his crafty rhetorical flourishes, he doesn't speak a word or even think a thought that can't be directly traced to Scripture. We already knew that about the bishop of Hippo, but we haven't seen it relayed in quite this way before.

"Let's recognize this day for what it is, my dear Brothers and Sisters," Griffin's Augustine says of Christmas. "Let's pretend we ourselves are the day! Yes, when we were living unfaithfully, we were the night. Indeed the slip-sliding in our faith had made the nights longer and colder till day itself was about to be snuffed. That's how it was on the day Our Lord Jesus Christ was born. The shortest day of the year. The Winter Solstice. From this point onward in human history, the nights grew shorter, the days longer." John 1:9, anyone?

Just as Augustine was a dexterous and innovative interpreter of the Word of God, ever intent on making the Bible accessible to the widest possible swath of humanity, so Griffin shows himself a witty and creative interpreter of the words of Augustine. In fact, so breezy is the sermonizing here that many turns of phrase beg the question: At what point does Augustine leave off and Griffin pick up?

The latter drops some helpful clues. The largest single section of Griffin's informative and entertaining foreword is an apologia for his use of the paraphrasal method of translation, rather than the literal, in turning ancient Latin into contemporary English. It's an approach that allows him to present Augustine as he might sound were he alive today.

Naturally, it also permits plenty of leeway for artistic indulgence. "Neither [men nor women] should give the Creator the finger," Griffin has the saint saying, "for that horrible trick he played on them in the Garden."

The bishop of Hippo may well have been similarly jarring in person. But would he have used so low-brow an expression -- in a homily? I'm not sure, but I'm giving Griffin a pass on that passage and several others in the same vein because, on the whole, Augustine in this brusque, thoroughly modern voice is so arresting and thought-provoking. There are worse ways to get good theology. And I've seen no better way to absorb Augustine for Advent.

"The angel delivered the message," we read. "Kindly the Virgin listened to it. Against her better judgment she believed it. The conception took place. Faith in her soul. Christ in her womb. And that's all there was to it. ... What storyteller -- the great Isaiah included -- could do Justice to a birth like that?"

If Augustine wasn't up to the job, neither is William Griffin. But what a joy their combined efforts are to read -- make that hear -- as Christmastide comes each year.

David Pearson is features editor of the National Catholic Register.

Along with Youth: Hemingway, the Early Years

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Along with Youth: Hemingway, the Early Years
Peter Griffin
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Epiphanies: Stories for the Christian Year

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Epiphanies: Stories for the Christian Year

Manufacturer: Baker Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Ritual | Other Practices | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Inspirational | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in an Everyday Life

ASIN: 0801064465
Release Date: 2003-10-01

Book Description

What might it be like to experience the dramatic events of the Christian year as if for the first time? Readers familiar with and new to the seasonal liturgies will be challenged and delighted by this book. Here, the renowned authors of the Chrysostom Society, a contemporary Christian writers group, offer original work. Walter Wangerin Jr., Virginia Stem Owens, Philip Yancey, and many others serve as spiritual mentors and guides, offering readers the opportunity to apply transcendent wisdom in each religious holy day. With messages to be savored for the sheer pleasure of word craft, as well as motivating insights, this text will equip the devotional heart. Its beautiful tellings-from histories of saints to personal memoirs-are provocative and profound. Readers will find everything from humorous narrative to journal entries here, taking the word stories to an entirely new level. Epiphanies is a treasury to rouse the soul and a superlative gift book.

The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970 (Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell)

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AN OUTSTANDING SELECTION

The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970 (Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell)

Manufacturer: TF-ROUTL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Philosophers | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Letters & Correspondence | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914 (Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell)
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell

ASIN: 0415260124

Book Description

This second of two volumes of Russell's letters covers most of Russell's adult life, the period during which he wrote over thirty books. Alongside Russell's Autobiography, these letters present the most accurate and fascinating account of his life yet published. They contain letters to some of the greatest figures of the twentieth century, including Ho Chi Minh, Lyndon Johnson, Tito, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jean-Paul Sartre, all but three which are previously unpublished.

Customer Reviews:

AN OUTSTANDING SELECTION.......2002-03-06

This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in a fresh approach to the workings of the mind one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century.
It is a selection of 338 letters written by Bertrand Russell between 1914 and 1970. Sifting though more than 40,000 letters is no simple feat. Fortunately the editor is Nicholas Griffin, director of the Bertrand Russel Research Center at McMaster University in Ontario. As editor of Russell's "Collected Papers", he is in an enviable position to provide us with the juiciest tidbits of Russell's dry humour, as well as a portrait of a passionate man.
The editor commentaries to the letters are useful in order to better understand and put in perspective some events and people mentioned by this very extraordinary thinker. One that you have to know well, if you are to understand how could he write in 1967
that "a great deal of work has come upon me, neglect of which might jeopardise the continuation of the human being......" Kudos to the editor.

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Along With Youth: Hemingway : The Early Years
Peter Griffin
Manufacturer: Replica Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Journalists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0735103372

Book Description

Peter Griffin has drawn upon a wealth of previously unpublished material--including numerous letters and five of Hemingway's early short stories that appear here in their entirety--to trace the formative years of one of America's Most celebrated and influential authors. This book examines in richer detail than any previous biography Hemingway's midwestern childhood, his relations with his parents, his journalistic apprenticeship, and his experiences as a Red Cross volumteer during World War I. It sheds new light on his wartime romance with Agnes Kurowsky, his first love, and the circumstances surrounding his wounding and convalescence. It closes with Hemingway at the brink of the literary career that would bring him worldwide acclaim. As the brisk narrative moves from Illinois to Kansa City on to New York and then Europe, Griffin paints a vivid picture of the people, places and events that shaped Hemingway as a man and a writer. This is the first installment of what promises to become the difinitive Hemingway biography for this generation. In a foreword to the book, Jack Hemingway, Ernest's first son, writes that Griffin's "insights and his innate skills have enabled him to bring a far different view of Hemingway as a developing human being." This book, he says, "has shown me insights into my own father's character and behavior I would not have thought possible in view of the time lapse between Hemingway's death and the research Griffin accomplished."

Follow the Ecstasy: Thomas Merton, the Hermitage Years, 1965-1968

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Follow the Ecstasy: Thomas Merton, the Hermitage Years, 1965-1968
John Howard Griffin
Manufacturer: Latitudes Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9994069837

Sir Evelyn Wrench And His Continuing Vision Of International Relations, During 40 Years

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Sir Evelyn Wrench And His Continuing Vision Of International Relations, During 40 Years
William V. Griffin
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1428657983

Book Description

Delivered At A National Newcomen Dinner Of The Newcomen Society Held At New York City.

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