Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Along the Bandra Railway Station



























These are powerful images.  Please click HERE for Vitasta Raina's drawings of the housing near the Bandra Railway Station.

Monday, July 30, 2018

The art and business of making books

By "business" here I am not referring to financial concerns, though they remain important considerations.  Instead I mean the "creative" decisions that are made over the course of composition and revision.

When I write and edit, I rely upon many criteria when making creative judgments, but the most important--the "final"--criterion is: "what choice will best stimulate--entertain, amuse, challenge, charm, please, coax, and satisfy--the reader?"  I shouldn't wish to overstate this, but here is the business of writing and editing, and here are the effuse but very real lines which describe the frontiers of the Highbrow Commonwealth.

Please click HERE for additional considerations.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Professor Hodges on Gnosticism

Please click HERE.

St. Augustine refuting a heretic




Saturday, July 28, 2018

Update

The novel Echoes is nearly completed.  I am currently examining a revised proof copy.

Emanations 7 is also very close.  The contents have been finalized, the selections have been placed in the master file, and the file is being formatted and edited.

Otherwise, I am reading moral philosophy and revising class notes.

Monday, July 23, 2018

Andrew Darlington reviews Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures edited by Mike Ashley






















Ashley's new book is a point of departure for considering the lore of the moon. Please click HERE There is also a title called Lost Mars: The Golden Age of the Red Planet

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Robert J. Wickenheiser & Terrance Lindall, The Milton Projects: 2009-2015

Recently, Terrance Lindall presented me with a copy of a new book documenting his work with Robert J. Wickenheiser, possibly the foremost collector of John Milton books and art in the United States. I first met Bob in 2012 at the "John Milton Weekend" event held at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center. Before his death, Bob was the Chair of the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters, which I am a member of.

The new book presents readers with a detailed look at the business--and the friendships--which characterize the world of big art galleries, high-caliber artists, and important collectors. The thesis of the book is the history of the collaboration between Terrance Lindall and Robert J. Wickenheiser in producing the Gold Illuminated Elephant folio, but it contains much, much more.  It is an excellent point of departure for students of art and literature, collectors, and people curious about what transpires among artists and patrons who share a love for unique artistic expressions--and who are committed to preserving the legacy of John Milton.

Please click HERE to view a free on-line version of the book.

Robert J. Wickenheiser lecturing at the WAH Center, April 2012


















Further details concerning the history of the book:

The signed hardcover book has been purchased by Dr. Joseph Wittreich, noted Milton scholar and collector, for
The Huntington Rare Book Library California
The University of Pennsylvania Rare Book Library
Hardcover, 152pp signed and numbered, limited to 100 copies $150 (first ten spoken for).

Also, copies purchased by:
 
Yuko Nii Foundation Milton Library (two copies)
Bienvenido Bones Banez, jr.
Milton's Cottage
Pat Wickenheiser
John Geraghty

Courtesy Softcover to:
 
Professor Steve Fallon
Professor Louis Schwartz
Professor Carter Kaplan

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Inner Landscapes

An email from Michael Butterworth mentions a new book entitled James Cawthorn: The Man and His Art. The book, published by Jayde Design (who distributes Emanations in the UK) is by Mauren Cawthorne Bell, who is Mr. Cawthorn's sister. The book is 448 pages long and contains 800 paintings and illustrations.   Please click HERE to view a detailed description of this substantial production.


Friday, July 6, 2018

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Declaration of Independence, the deleted passage

The Declaration of Independence lists a number of grievances against King George III.  During the composition of the document, the following passage was deleted, according to Jefferson, in order to appease delegates from South Carolina and Georgia along with Northern delegates representing merchants involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, The passage was replaced with a charge against George's incitement of "domestic insurrections among us."  Here is the original passage:
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.  This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain.  Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce.  And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

Newell Convers Wyeth, Drafting the Declaration of Independence--1776


















Source

Monday, July 2, 2018

Harold Feinstein (1931-2015)

Terrance Lindall asked me to pass this along...

Roka's Fine Art and Antiques.is offering black and white and color photographs by Harold Feinstein, who's iconic images of Coney Island, street scenes and flowers have attracted international attention. Please click HERE to view the black and white series.  Click HERE to view the color images.






















Feinstein's obituary in The New York Times.