The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Leonardo - Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc; Science; Art / Individual Artist; Art / History / General; Science / General;

An Economist Book of the Year        Costa Book Award Winner for Biography     Galaxy National Book Award Winner (New Writer of the Year Award)Edmund de Waal is a world-famous ceramicist. Having spent thirty years making beautiful pots—which are then sold, collected, and handed on—he has a particular sense of the secret lives of objects. When he inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, called netsuke, he wanted to know who had touched and held them, and how the collection had managed to survive. And so begins this extraordinarily moving memoir and detective story as de Waal discovers both the story of the netsuke and of his family, the Ephrussis, over five generations. A nineteenth-century banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna, the Ephrussis were as rich and respected as the Rothchilds. Yet by the end of the World War II, when the netsuke were hidden from the Nazis in Vienna, this collection of very small carvings was all that remained of their vast empire.

EVERYONE KNOWSTHE IMAGE. NO ONE KNOWS ITS STORY. This is the story of Vitruvian Man: Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of a man in a circle and a square. Deployed today to celebrate subjects as various as the nature of genius, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human spirit, the figure appears on everything from coffee cups and T-shirts to book covers and corporate logos. In short, it has become the world’s most famous cultural icon, yet almost nobody knows anything about it. Leonardo didn’t summon Vitruvian Man out of thin air. He was playing with the idea, set down by the Roman architect Vitruvius, that the human body could be made to fit inside a circle, long associated with the divine, and a square, related to the earthly and secular. To place a man inside those shapes was therefore to imply that the human body was the world in miniature. This idea, known as the theory of the microcosm, was the engine that had powered Western religious and scientific thought for centuries, and Leonardo hitched himself to it in no uncertain terms. Yet starting in the 1480s he set out to do something unprecedented. If the design of the body truly did reflect that of the cosmos, he reasoned, then by studying its proportions and anatomy more thoroughly than had ever been done before—by peering deep into both body and soul—he might broaden the scope of his art to include the broadest of metaphysical horizons. He might, in other words, obtain an almost godlike perspective on the makeup of the world as a whole. Vitruvian Man gives that exhilarating idea visual expression. In telling its story, Toby Lester weaves together a century-spanning saga of people and ideas. Assembled here is an eclectic cast of fascinating characters: the architect Vitruvius; the emperor Caesar Augustus and his “body of empire”; early Christian and Muslim thinkers; the visionary mystic Hildegard of Bingen; the book-hunter Poggio Bracciolini; the famous dome-builder Filippo Brunelleschi; Renaissance anatomists, architects, art theorists, doctors, and military engineers; and, of course, in the starring role, Leonardo himself—whose ghost Lester resurrects in the surprisingly unfamiliar context of his own times. Da Vinci’s Ghost is written with the same narrative flair and intellectual sweep as Lester’s award-winning first book, the “almost unbearably thrilling” (Simon Winchester) Fourth Part of the World. Like Vitruvian Man itself, the book captures a pivotal time in the history of Western thought when the Middle Ages was giving way to the Renaissance, when art and science and philosophy all seemed to be converging as one, and when it seemed just possible, at least to Leonardo da Vinci, that a single human being might embody—and even understand—the nature of everything.

The Art of War, compiled by Sun Tzu in the 6th century B.C., is the world's oldest surviving military treatise. Long revered as the definitive guide to strategy and tactics on the battlefield, its timeless wisdom is now being applied in the boardroom, on the playing field, and everywhere challenges must be faced. Required reading for U.S. Marine commandants, The Art of War has inspired generals from Douglas MacArthur to Norman Schwazkopf. But it has also been used by top executives, sports coaches, political strategists, lawyers, salesmen, pick-up artists, and Survivor contestants. Whatever your arena of battle, The Art of War will help you overcome overcome every obstacle along the path to success. Visit www.bestsuccessbooks.net to view our other new, inexpensive editions of the greatest success books of all time.

Preface par Henry Frichet

Americans love their breakfast cereal, which is second only to milk and soda in supermarket spending. Cereals and their cartoon spokescharacters are some of the most enduring pop-culture icons of the 20th century. The Great American Cereal Book is the definitive compendium of breakfast cereal history and lore, celebrating the most recognizable brands and packaging, such as Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, Grape-Nuts, and Trix. Award-winning writer Marty Gitlin and co-author Topher Ellis provide behind-the-scenes stories about the creation of these iconic kitchen-table companions, with 350 images of cereal boxes, vintage ads, and rare memorabilia.Praise for The Great American Cereal Book: "Instantly evokes feelings of childhood--watching Saturday-morning cartoons and being bombarded with commercials for sweet cereals with colorful mascots like Toucan Sam and Tony the Tiger." --TMagazine.Blogs.NYTimes.com "While many of us have ditched the cereals of our youths (in all their freeze-dried marshmallowy glory) in favor of flax seed (boring!), the eye-popping colors and kooky designs on the cereal boxes of our childhoods still have a pull, which is why we're loving The Great American Cereal Book. -- Oprah.comIf you're a cereal lover, you'll enjoy poring through Marty Gitlin and Topher Ellis' The Great American Cereal Book: How Breakfast Got Its Crunch (Abrams Image). Full of factoids and countless cereal boxes from days of yore, Gitlin and Ellis trace the history of this most iconic of American breakfast dishes. It's a lot of fun to look at how cereal packaging has changed over the decades, and for anyone a little bit nostalgic, it's the perfect venue for a walk down memory lane. -- epicurious.com"A crisply colorful history of a favorite kids' food that became a pop culture icon." --Tampa Bay Times "Whether you're a food history buff, package-design geek, or just an enthusiastic consumer of the country's favorite morning bowl, these pages provide enough--ahem--snap, crackle, and pop to keep everyone happy." --Real Eats magazine

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was one of the most popular British book illustrators of the Victorian era. A contemporary of Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane, she attracted a wide audience in the United States and England, and many of her books were even translated into German and French. One of Greenaway's early successes was Mother Goose, or the Old Nursery Rhymes, first published in 1881, featuring such favorite poems as "Little Jack Horner," "Little Bo Peep," and "Jack and Jill" paired with whimsical illustrations of children playing in an idyllic countryside. Her enchanting watercolors evoked the urban Victorian reader's nostalgia for the rural life of earlier times and echoed Greenaway's own longing to retreat to a more tranquil setting than her native London. This new edition of Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose reproduces illustrations from the rare 1881 edition in the Huntington Library's collections. The Huntington owns an extensive collection of books illustrated by Greenaway, several of her manuscripts, and nearly one hundred of her original drawings.

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Painting; Painters; Art; Art / General; Art / Criticism; Art / History / General; Art / European; Art / Individual Artist; Art / Techniques / Painting;

For two-semester courses in Art History Survey, Global Art History, and for Introductory Art courses taught from a historical perspective. Exceptional in scholarship and pedagogically in tune with the needs of today's students-rich but never effete-Marilyn Stokstad's Art History is the art history text of choice for a new generation of teachers and students. Presenting a broad view of art through the centuries, it introduces beginning students in a positive and sympathetic manner to the works of all artists. This includes women and artists of color, and the arts of other continents and regions in addition to those of Western Europe and the United States. Balancing both the traditions of art history and new trends of the present, Art History is the most comprehensive, accessible, and magnificently illustrated work of its kind.

Banksy, Britain's now-legendary "guerilla" street artist, has painted the walls, streets, and bridges of towns and cities throughout the world. Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of  New York City's major art museums, he's also "hung" his work at London's Tate Gallery and adorned Israel's West Bank barrier with satirical images. Banksy's identity remains unknown, but his work is unmistakable—with prints selling for as much as $45,000.