In a future totalitarian state where books are banned and destroyed by the government, Guy Montag, a fireman in charge of burning books, meets a revolutionary schoolteacher who dares to read and a girl who tells him of a past when people did not live in fear ... This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman ; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical...

A collection of both previously unpublished works and classic essays includes discussions of recent cultural and political events, social networking, libraries, and the failure to address global warming. "Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel, White Teeth, almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also as a brilliant and singular essayist. She...

Smarsh challenged a typically male vision of the rural working class with her first book, Heartland, starring the bold, hard-luck women who raised her. Now, in She Come by It Natural, originally published in a four-part series for The Journal of Roots Music, No Depression, Smarsh explores the overlooked contributions to social progress by such women -- including those averse to the term "feminism" -- as exemplified by Dolly Parton's life and art....

This program covers the world's most celebrated 20th century violinists, including Jasch Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, and many others. Thanks to rare footage, audiences can reexperience the unique sound and style of these influential artists.

"From leading Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, a timely and insightful examination of what the world's greatest dramatist can teach us about life in an America riven by conflict. The United States has always been divided, but Americans from all walks of life have also always shared a deep affinity for the plays William Shakespeare, even if their meaning has been fiercely contested. For well over two centuries now, Americans of all stripes--presidents...

"The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics' interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the "epic of epics"--and to the past 60 years of American culture--from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale. The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created:...

Author/narrator Hoff calls Winnie the Pooh a "Western Taoist'' and uses the unassuming bear to introduce Eastern philosophical principles. Pooh epitomizes the "uncarved block, '' as he is well in tune with his natural inner self.

Thirty-eight of Wright's architectural designs, ranging from his early work in the 1890s to his daring creations of the 1940s, show each building's evolution from conceptual sketch, plan, or drawings to finished masterwork.

Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides a seminal reading of the dichotomy between 'cheap grace' and 'costly grace.' Cheap grace is the grace bestowed on oneself, a grace without discipleship. Costly grace is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the girl who must be asked for, the door at which a man must know. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life....

A collection of essays follows the author as she contemplates the pleasure of artistic labor; her boundless curiosity for the flora and fauna that surround her; and the responsibility she has inherited from the great thinkers and writers of the past.