The best-known work of Nyingma literature, the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the Bardo Thodol, or The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the work of Tibetan Buddhist spiritualism first revealed by Karma Lingpa in the 14th century. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is part of a larger corpus of texts called the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones which is believed to have been composed by Padmasambhava in the 8th century and written down by his student Yeshe Tsogyal. Intended as a work to help guide the spirit in the afterlife from death to the next rebirth, The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes the experiences that the consciousness will have after death. The work also includes descriptions of the signs of death and the rituals that one must undertake to prepare for the journey following one's death. This volume presents the English translation of Walter Evans-Wentz first published in 1927 which helped to popularize the work in the West. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is one of the most important of all Christian writings. The work was treasured by Martin Luther, the 15th century German priest, scholar, and father of the Protestant Reformation. For this reason, Luther delivered lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians in 1531 and published those lectures in 1535. The resulting Commentary on Galatians by Luther is widely regarded as one of the most important commentaries ever written on Christian faith and love. Deeply personal and at least in part autobiographical, Luther explains why St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is so important and meaningful to both him and to the Christian faith. Paul's Epistle and Luther's Commentary have assured countless Christians of the superiority of the Bible over human reason, the perfection of Christ's sacrifice and atonement through his death, and the essential doctrine of justification through faith alone as the foundation for all Christians. Moving and passionate, Luther expresses the strength and comfort that he has found in this faith. This masterpiece continues to remain as inspiring and important to Christians today in understanding their faith as it has been for the last five hundred years. Presented here is the condensed translation by Theodore Graebner. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Contained here in this volume is a reproduction of the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Field Operative Training Manual on lock picking. This book will provide a basic primer on the many facets of lock picking. The introduction of this little volume has the following to say on the subject: There has been much opinion and little fact written on the subject of lock picking. It will be my purpose to clarify the facts about this process and at the same time train you in proper procedure so that before you leave this class today, you will at least have picked one lock. Please note that to become truly proficient you must devote much time and patience in the future. In this volume we will discuss not only the fundamental theories of lock picking but proper terminology, the importance of tool design (using the right tool for the right job), the effects of tolerances, and finally the techniques most commonly used by locksmiths to successfully pick the vast majority of standard pin and wafer tumbler locks. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Sophocles, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, is considered one of three important ancient Greek tragedians. Writing during the 5th century BC, Sophocles created some one hundred and twenty three plays during his lifetime, of which only seven have survived in their entirety. In this edition are included the three Theban plays, which are widely considered his most important works. This collection of dramas includes Antigone the story of its title character, a strong heroine whose complete commitment to familial duty brings her to challenge the will of her king; Oedipus the King, the legend of Oedipus who is exiled as an infant by his royal father because of a prophesy of patricide and incest; and Oedipus at Colonus, a drama which finds Oedipus at the end of his life caught between the warring kings of Athens and Thebes who each desire that Oedipus's final resting place be in their respective lands. These tragedies are some of the finest examples from classical antiquity and their influence on the development of modern drama cannot be overstated. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper, follows the translations of Francis Storr, and includes introductions by R. C. Jebb.

This volume contains a collection of some of the best short stories ever written by Edgar Allan Poe. A master of the macabre, Poe exhibits his literary prowess in these classic short stories. Contained within this volume are the following: The Gold-Bug, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Balloon-Hoax, The Purloined Letter, A Descent into the Maelstr m, The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart.

Karl Marx is one of the most influential social theorists and political philosophers of the 19th century. His hugely significant works The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital fundamentally changed the way the world viewed economy and politics. His groundbreaking theory that much of a society's conflict is based on an economic imbalance between the wealthy ruling class, the bourgeoisie, who control the means of production, and the working class, or the proletariat, who are forced to sell their labor in return for wages, helped spur the development of socialist and communist political systems. This edition contains two of his more important essays. First written in 1847, Wage Labour and Capital is the foundation for the economic theories that were later developed in Das Kapital. Value, Price, and Profit was first given as a speech by Marx in 1865 and expands on his ideas regarding the relationship between wages and profit. Marx argues that workers are responsible for creating the value that leads to profit and they are entitled to share in it through increased wages. Marx's theories remain widely studied for their relevance and insight into the problems and inequalities that continue to exist in modern economic systems. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

First published in 1959, The Measure of a Man is a collection of two influential sermons given by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the first National Conference on Christian Education of the United Church of Christ at Purdue University in August 1958. The two sermons, What is Man? and The Dimensions of a Complete Life, were printed together and published as The Measure of a Man by the Christian Education Press with the consent of King the following year. These sermons reflect ideas that King first began to develop during his days in the seminary and address what King believed to be one of the most important questions confronting any generation. He argued that the answer to what precisely made us human and different from other animals was complicated as we are biological beings, but also beings of spirit and thought. King argued that while we are made in the image of God and thus have a connection to the divine and perfect, we are also sinners in need of divine grace from God, our Creator. King's sermons are as thought-provoking and inspiring now as when he gave them and remain an important addition to his body of work. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

In Cou 's authoritative book on Self Mastery, you get a work of real and unique value. After twenty years of scientific study-experimenting with thousands of persons-Prof. Cou discovered a fundamental principle of life, and developed a method of controlling life's greatest force. Discover the power of that method for yourself in this classic self-help work.

Gardening Without Work is the detailed and helpful guide by Ruth Stout, the American author famous for her lazy gardener approach to gardening. Stout started gardening in 1930, when she was 46, and over the next decade came to understand just how demanding of an activity it can be. In 1944, she decided on a different approach and developed many techniques, including a year-round mulch, that significantly decreased the amount of work needed to garden successfully. Stout published her first work detailing her new methods in 1955, titled How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back, and began a successful writing career. First published in 1961, Gardening Without Work expands upon her mulching methods for easy gardening and details in an easy-to-understand format exactly how to begin and maintain an effortless garden. Written with her trademark humor and wit, Stout shows readers how to get the most out of gardening with less effort and time so that you are free to enjoy both a productive garden and all the fun that life has to offer. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

First published in German in 1912 and translated into English in 1916, Psychology of the Unconscious is one of Carl Jung's most important works. Jung was a promising young Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst when he caught the attention of Sigmund Freud. The two began a lengthy correspondence and Freud viewed Jung as the heir to his theory of the future of psychoanalysis. Jung's views began to diverge from his mentor's however and the publication of Psychology of the Unconscious was the formal end of their collaboration and friendship. Jung's work delved deeply into the fantasies and mental visions of a patient that he believed had early signs of schizophrenia and concluded that these detailed historical fantasies revealed hidden sexual and psychic energies that took on symbolic forms in the patient's conscious mind. Jung's analysis laid the foundation for many of the theories that he would later become so famous for, such as the collective unconscious and archetypes. Psychology of the Unconscious remains an important contribution to the development of analytical psychoanalysis as a beneficial and effective therapy. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and follows the translation of Beatrice M. Hinkle.

Considered to be one of the most important self-help books ever written, I Dare You was first published in 1931 by William Danforth, the founder of the Ralston-Purina pet food company and the American Youth Foundation. Danforth was a successful entrepreneur who spent much of his life helping and counseling young people and founded a youth camp in Michigan dedicated to mentoring youth. In this influential work, he expounded on his belief that a healthy and productive life depended on keeping four important elements in balance. These elements were physical, mental, social, and religious. A person must develop each element individually, but must not focus on one element to the detriment of the others. Danforth also believed in the importance of dedicating one's attention and efforts to the task at hand and treating each job and day as the most important one ever. Danforth never approached any challenge with less than complete attention and he inspired countless young people with his unwavering enthusiasm and determination. I Dare You is a timeless classic that will encourage everyone to face life's challenges with a determined spirit. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

E. W. Bullinger was a 19th century English clergyman, scholar, and prolific author. He is best-known for his detailed six-part work The Companion Bible, which was published over many years from 1909 to 1922. That comprehensive guide has assisted countless readers in their goal of better understanding the Bible. In his work Number in Scripture, Bullinger examines in impressive detail all of the occurrences of numbers in the Bible and concludes that an examination of these numerical references proves that it was written by God and not by man. Bullinger finds patterns in the number of things made by God in Genesis, the number of books of the Bible, the frequency by which some words and phrases are repeated, and examines the meaning and significance of numerical references as they appear in the Holy Book. As anyone who has read the Bible can attest, numbers play an important role in God's message for man and Bullinger's work makes understanding the importance of these numbers easy for both those new to the scriptures and those who have been reading and studying it for years. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

First serialized in 1924 and published as a complete novel in 1925, The Painted Veil is the powerful novel of transgression and redemption by popular and prolific British author W. Somerset Maugham. The Painted Veil tells the story of the lovely and superficial Kitty Garstin and her unhappy marriage to Walter Fane, a quiet and honorable man. Kitty agrees to marry Walter not because she loves him, but because she fears being upstaged by her younger sister. Kitty travels to Tching-Yen with her new husband, where he is posted as a government scientist, and Kitty soon falls in love with her husband's colleague, the handsome and charming Charlie Townsend. Walter is not as clueless about her behavior as Kitty would like to believe, and eventually rejected by her selfish lover, he has her travel with him to mainland China to help during a dangerous cholera epidemic. The experience utterly transforms Kitty and she begins to take responsibility for her mistakes and understand her shortcomings. Beautiful and deeply affecting, The Painted Veil is a thought-provoking study of the ability of people to change, grow, and learn how to love deeply. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Upon its original publication in 1857 Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal or The Flowers of Evil was embroiled in controversy. Within a month of its publication the French authorities brought an action against the author and the book's publisher claiming that the work was an insult to public decency. Eventually the French courts would acknowledge the literary merit of Baudelaire's work but ordered that six poems in particular should be banned from subsequent publication. The notoriety caused by this scandal would ultimately work in the author's favor causing the initial publication to sell out, thus prompting the publication of another edition. The second edition was published in 1861, it included an additional thirty-five poems, with the exclusion of the six poems censored by the French government. Finally in 1868 a third edition was published posthumously. This collection added an additional fourteen poems selected by two of Baudelaire's friends yet again excluded the six censored poems. Literary scholars generally agree that, while well-meaning, the addition of these poems in the third edition disrupt the structure intended by Baudelaire and thus the 1861 edition should be considered as the definitive edition. In this volume we reproduce that 1861 edition along with the six censored poems in the original French and in an English translation by William Aggeler. Rich with symbolism, The Flowers of Evil is rightly considered a classic of the modernist literary movement. Its themes of decadence and eroticism seek to exhibit Baudelaire's criticism of the Parisian society of his time.

The Blacker the Berry is the provocative and illuminating 1929 novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman. The novel follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin. She is born and raised by her single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho. She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she, and believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying and having an easy life. Emma wants a better life for herself and goes to college at the University of Southern California, hopeful she will find people who will accept her. While she finds a larger black community at college, she continues to feel like an outsider and is often made to feel inferior and unwanted due to her darker skin. Emma Lou's search for love and acceptance takes her to New York and the vibrant black community of Harlem after college, but she continues to face prejudice and rejection in a world she thought would be more accepting of her. Critically acclaimed, The Blacker the Berry remains an unflinching and thought-provoking examination of race, prejudice, and self-acceptance. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Archy, a New York City cockroach, and Mehitabel, a New York City alley cat, were characters created by The Evening Sun columnist Donald Robert Perry Marquis. The subject of hundreds of humorous poems and stories, Archy is portrayed as having been a free verse poet in a previous life who takes to writing stories and poems on an old typewriter at the office of a newspaper after everyone has gone home. Archy's best friend is the alley cat Mehitabel with whom the cockroach shares a series of daily adventures which serve as a satiric commentary on the daily life of New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Archy's poems are notable for the fact that they don't use capital letters since as a cockroach he cannot simultaneously hold down the shift key while he hurls himself at the keys to type away on the old typewriter. Don Marquis's Archy and Mehitabel poems were first published as a collection in 1927. This edition reproduces that first collection and is printed on premium acid-free paper.

First performed in 1882, Ghosts is the controversial and tragic play by the famed Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is the story of Helen Alving, a wealthy widow who was unhappily married to her unfaithful husband. Helen has tried to shelter her son, Oswald, from the corrupting influence of his father's immoral behavior and has sent him away only to discover that he is suffering from syphilis inherited from his father. Oswald has also unfortunately fallen in love with Regina, his mother's maid, who is revealed to be Oswald's illegitimate half-sister. Oswald is heartbroken and asks his mother to help him end his life with an overdose of morphine, as he fears slipping into a vegetative state as his disease progresses. Ghosts is a scathing indictment of Victorian society in which Ibsen refutes the notion that if one simply fulfills one's duty according to the morals of the time then a good and noble life is guaranteed. Scandalous in its day for its frank discussion of venereal disease, marital infidelity, incest, and euthanasia, Ghosts continues to resonant with modern audiences for its intense psychological drama and sharp social criticism. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn's writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. Kwaidan is most commonly translated as weird or horror tales, but to assign one word to the people, places, ghosts, and gods in this work, one can only use the word strange. This collection of supernatural tales includes twenty stories translated from old Japanese texts. Hearn was made a professor of English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1895, and is today revered by the Japanese for providing significant insights into their own national character. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

African-American scholars have cited James Weldon Johnson's 1927 book of poems, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse as one of the author's most notable works. Johnson, who is best known for his 1912 work, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, was an American writer and civil rights activist born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871. As a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Johnson helped to bring awareness to the problem of black lynching in America during the first part of the 20th century as well as other civil rights issues that people of color faced in America. A collection of eight poems, God's Trombones draws upon the tradition in the black church of drawing upon black folklore to preach the word of god. The title of the work has been described by Johnson as a metaphor for the powerfully persuasive nature of the vocal and rhetorical qualities of the sermons of a folk preacher. Immediately upon its publication God's Trombones would go on to achieve great critical acclaim in the black community further helping to establish Johnson as one of the principal figures of the Harlem Renaissance. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Known as the Corpus Areopagiticum, this collection of works was falsely attributed by its author as being written by Dionysius the Areopagite, a first century AD Athenian convert of Paul the Apostle mentioned in Acts 17:34. Because of this erroneous attribution great attention was given by early Christian scholars, most notably the late 13th and early 14th century scholar Meister Eckhart. Sometime in the 15th century it came to light that this collection of works was most likely the work of some anonymous late 5th or early 6th century author, who has subsequently been referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius. While this reattribution has diminished the Corpus Areopagiticum importance in Christian literature the collection still holds an important interest among scholars because of a renewed interest in the huge impact of Dionysian thought on later Christian thought. Included in this collection is the complete Corpus Areopagiticum, which includes the following individual works: Divine Names, Mystic Theology, Heavenly Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and Letters of Dionysius the Areopagite. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and follows the translations of John Parker.