The Spice Ports
The Prelude
“An outsize, gorgeous book, replete with paintings and drawings—landscapes, houses, portraits—contemporaneous with the poem. At last we have a worthy visual counterpart to one of the timeless monuments of English verse.”
– The Wall Street Journal
“It was… with startled joy that I encountered this glorious edition of The Prelude… Handsomely produced in a broad horizontal format, this volume is illustrated by paintings or drawings contemporaneous with the poem itself. These offer to the American reader’s eye an array of scenes indispensable to an understanding of Wordsworth’s world—lakes, crags, nocturnes, ships at sea, the Alps, Stonehenge, Revolutionary France, Cambridge, London.”
– The New York Review of Books
“The text is lightly but skillfully annotated and the whole is presented with the authority and the freshness it deserves.”
– Cumbria Life
Jewish Country Houses
“This is a magnificent work of scholarship – it illuminates complex and ambiguous stories of assimilation and identity with verve and insight.”
“An absorbing, richly-textured history that illuminates how the aspirations of an ascendant Jewish elite transformed the traditional notion of the country house from a site of settled privilege into a dynamic microcosm of bold self-inscription – a catalyst for new forms of sociability, patronage, art collecting, and philanthropy. Interweaving a wide array of sources and perspectives from different cultures, these essays explore gripping tales of belonging and rejection, memory and erasure, dispossession and resilience.”
“This lusciously illustrated book provides an essential tour of the Jewish country houses of Europe and the UK. Each of the thirteen essays furnishes an authoritative understanding of a specific house and uses a combination of new and historic images to showcase the lives of the inhabitants and the homes’ rich interiors.”
The Second Half
“A fascinating, fly-in-amber distillation of forty women over fifty, the book pushes these women to the foreground, shaking up expectations along the way. The results (are) revelatory.”
“Reading Ellen Warner’s The Second Half: Forty Women Reveal Life After Fifty is like having one of those intimate conversations with each of 40 women from around the world as they share their formative experiences and advice for younger generations. Their insights are particularly valuable in a country where intergenerational learning is often lost…”
“As these women and others divulge their most difficult and joyous moments, the result is a book bristling with energy and wisdom.”
“What makes this book really special is that the women share what they’ve learned from their experiences, and how those lessons will shape the rest of their lives… (it) is a compelling testament to human perseverance in the face of hardship, but also to life’s enduring joys. Warner captures her subjects’ candid stories sensitively and with verve.”
Freshwater Fish
“The illustrations are absolutely splendid: accurately rendered and artistically striking. … If you’re a serious fisher in the Northeast, or if serious anglers come to visit, this is a book you’ll want lying on the coffee table.”
– National Outdoor Book Awards
“Father and son fishing buddies David A. Patterson, a retired high school biology teacher in Billerica, and Matt, a professional illustrator, have produced Freshwater Fish of the Northeast, a guidebook to more than 60 species. Matt based most of his illustrations on photographs taken of live catches he or his father made before they set the fish free.”
– Boston Globe
On James Baldwin
“These astute essays are doubly rewarding, shedding light on Baldwin’s profound visions of freedom while offering insight into how Tóibín reads and thinks about fiction. The result is a testament to the talents of both writers.”
“The writing is lucid, concise, unpretentious, emotionally engaging and, in some instances, deeply personal. [A] brilliant book.”
“The great achievement of On James Baldwin is the same as what Baldwin hoped for himself: to write about the human condition without confinement to race, religion, and sexual orientation.”
The Lamb Cycle
“What former English major wouldn’t get a kick out of The Lamb Cycle, by David R. Ewbank, with illustrations by Kate Feiffer (Brandeis University Press)? In it, Ewbank, a Kent State University professor emeritus, imagines how English poets — from Spenser and Shakespeare to Philip Larkin and Stevie Smith — might have reworked the Mother Goose classic “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Here’s the appropriately macabre opening of Coleridge’s “The Crime of the Urchin Mary”: “It was an ancient crone who wrote / Silly rhymes for tots / Was stopped by a maid in a pinafore / With blood-red polkadots.” That last phrase delivers the true Gothic shiver.”
“David Ewbank’s versatility in the art of literary imitation is nothing short of shapeshifting.”
“The Lamb Cycle made me laugh with delight even as it delivered a masterclass on poetic form. David R. Ewbank captures each of the great poets’ stylistic tics and thematic preoccupations, and imbues them with a visionary verve all his own. The poems are perfectly paired with Kate Feiffer’s elegant illustrations, brimming with wit and wonderment.”