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Is it possible to achieve peak physical health without a gym, workout equipment, or even space to run? If the exercise plan in 1945's Return to Life Through Contrology is followed, it may be. Written and compiled by Joseph H. Pilates and William J. Miller, this short exercise book demonstrates a series of movements at the core of what we now call simply Pilates. Before it became mainstream, the practice was called Contrology, and it was much simpler than its current, equipment-heavy iteration.
Creator Joseph Pilates was born in Germany, a sickly child who suffered from asthma and rheumatic fever, which caused joint and muscle pain. His father introduced him to gymnastics, body-building, and martial arts at a young age, and Pilates devoted the rest of his life to fitness and bodily health.
As a young man, Pilates was a body-builder and gymnast. After immigrating to England in 1912, he earned a living as a professional boxer and circus performer. He also trained police at Scotland Yard in self-defense.
When World War I broke out in 1914, anti-German sentiment reached a fever pitch, and many German citizens living in England were sent to internment camps. Pilates was among them. He spent nearly the entirety of the war as an internee, first at Lancaster Castle and then on the Isle of Man located between England and Northern Ireland.
During this time, Pilates spent his days training his fellow prisoners in wrestling and self-defense. And with no equipment at his disposal, Pilates began to develop his practice of Contrology, focused on bodyweight and mat exercises. Later, he incorporated his simple metal bed into his workouts. It served as an early prototype for his future Universal Reformer exercise equipment that brought added resistance to the movements.
After the war, Pilates briefly returned to Germany before immigrating to the United States. During the ocean crossing, he met his future wife, Clara. Once the pair reached New York City, they opened their first fitness studio dedicated to Contrology. Clara, a former nurse, helped her husband to teach students and run the studio. It caught on quickly and included among its devotees famous dancers George Balanchine and Martha Graham. Balanchine brought some of his dancers to Pilates, including young ballerina Romana Kryzanowska who hoped to rehabilitate an injured ankle.
Return to Life Through Contrology, written by Pilates and William J. Miller, includes the original 34 exercises that Pilates taught to his students. The practice focuses on the core muscles in the abdomen, hips, and lower back to increase stability and reduce lower back pain. While some of the postures and movements are similar to yoga poses, Contrology is more strength-based than flexibility-based.
Proper breathing is a central tenet of the practice, with specific instructions accompanying each exercise for inhalation and exhalation. Breathwork in Contrology, similarly to yoga, is a vital part of the movements.
When we think of a modern Pilates studio, we often think of a jumble of platforms, straps, and loops that most of us can't fit in our homes. But the original training required no equipment at all. Based on the exercises that Pilates developed during his time as a prisoner of war, they use only body weight to improve strength and flexibility.
Pilates' philosophy of movement and breath has grown much more popular in the years since his death, with studios opening all over the world. Those who want to understand the foundations of the practice should study the exercises in Return to Life Through Contrology, where they can learn the fundamentals of the movements directly from the master himself.
This trade paperback edition is a fully illustrated reprint of the 1904 publication by Aleister Crowley and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. This edition of The Lesser Key of Solomon the King contains all of the over 150 seals, sigils, and charts of the original lesser book of Solomon. Beware of other editions that do not contain the Lesser Key of Solomon seals; they were painstakingly researched by Mathers and Crowley, and Solomon's lesser key is enhanced by their inclusion. This edition also contains Crowley's original comments located in over 35 annotations to help the reader understand the lesser keys of Solomon the king.
In this work, Crowley and Mathers assemble descriptions and directions for the invocation of over 72 demons or spirits. Included are: illustrations of Solomon's Magic Circle & Triangle, Enochian translations of the Goetia book, step by step guides for invocation, as well as definitions and explanations for the ancient terms seen throughout the Lesser Key of Solomon book.
The Lesser Key of Solomon, or the Clavicula Salomonis Regis, or Lemegeton, is a compilation of materials and writings from ancient sources making up a text book of magic or grimoire. Portions of this book can be traced back to the mid-16th to 17th centuries, when occult researchers such as Cornelius Agrippa and Johannes Trithemisus assembled what they discovered during their investigations into their own great works.
As a modern grimoire, the Lesser Key of Solomon has seen several editions with various authors and editors taking liberty to edit and translate the ancient writings and source material. In 1898, Arthur Edward Waite published his The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, which contained large portions of the Lemegeton. He was followed by Mathers and Crowley in 1904 who published The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon. Many others have assembled their own version of this ancient material since, and it is important to realize that it is the contents rather than the book itself that make up the Lesser Key. Traditionally, the source material is divided into five books: Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria. Mathers and Crowley indicate their edition is a translation only of the first book: Goetia.
In the preface to this edition, it is explained that a Secret Chief of the Rosicrucian Order directed the completion of the book. The original editor was a G. H. Fra. D.D.C.F. who translated ancient texts from French, Hebrew, and Latin, but was unable to complete his labors because of the martial assaults of the Four Great Princes. Crowley was then asked to step in and finish what the previous author had begun. Traditionally, S. L. MacGregor Mathers is credited as the translator of this edition, and Crowley is given the title of editor. Although impossible to verify, it is often claimed that Mathers did not want to publish this work, but Crowley did so anyway without his permission.
Includes all original images and text for The Greater Key of Solomon, The Lesser Key of Solomon & The Testament of Solomon.
The Greater Key of Solomon contains all original seals, charts and sigils first researched by S.L. MacGregor Mathers in the ancient manuscripts of the British Library.
The Lesser Key of Solomon, perfected by Aleister Crowley himself, compiles ancient sources, writings and other material to create a workable grimoire for the student of Magick.
The Testament of Solmon, written by Solmon himself, illustrates the use of this magick against demons and other powers in the time of Solmon the King.
This collection is a must have for any serious student of esoteric knowledge.
In Ingersoll Lockwood's 1900; Or, The Last President, a politically charged New York City is on edge after a political outsider overcomes stiff opposition to be elected President of the United States. Mob rule threatens, and marching protests rove up and down Fifth Avenue searching for symbols of wealth to destroy. Lockwood uses this setting to critique the socialist and collectivist mentality of his era and illustrate the inherent danger of the crowd. The story is a small and relatively unknown political satire from the late 19th century, which found new popularity after the election of Donald Trump in 2016.
In the 1890s, Ingersoll Lockwood authored a series of children's books about the escapades of his character, the young Baron Trump: Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and his Wonderful Dog Bulger, and Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey. The series followed a literary trend of the time, which had child protagonists adventuring to enchanted lands and encountering fantastic beings. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are two famous examples of this genre.
Lockwood's Baron is an aristocratic youth bored with his life of luxury in Castle Trump. Searching for adventure, Baron travels to Russia to discover an underground world beneath his feet. He journeys downward and finds himself lost in peculiar settings surrounded by the strange inhabitants of this new world. The stories follow his adventures and eventual struggle to find his way back to the surface he left behind.
The Baron Trump novels were obscured by the more successful children's books of the time. Lockwood's tall tales seemed destined for the literary dust bin, but the election of Donald Trump in 2016 renewed interest in these works due to the President's youngest son's name: Barron Trump. Now, back in print, the Baron Trump series is enjoying considerable interest and success.
The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues About the So-Called Psychopathic Personality is a foundational work on the nature and diagnosis of psychopathy by Dr. Harvey M. Cleckley. This landmark work explores the psychopath's ability to hide their illness and function normally in public when it serves their ends. This ability to slip on the mask makes identification and diagnoses of these individuals extremely difficult.
Dr. Hervey M. Cleckley (1903-1984) was a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Georgia School of Medicine. As the psychiatric consultant at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Augusta and the Camp Gordon Army Hospital, he had ample opportunities to observe and treat men suffering from war-related trauma like post-traumatic stress disorder.
He wrote several books on psychiatry, including The Three Faces of Eve with Dr. Corbett H. Thigpen. This book is a case study on a patient with a rare diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. It was later made into a film of the same name. Actress Joanne Woodward won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Eve's three personalities. Dr. Cleckley was also a consultant for the prosecution in the 1979 trial of Ted Bundy.
Dr. Cleckley's best-known work is The Mask of Sanity, first published in 1941. This printing is the second edition, published in 1950. The work was revised several times across four decades, as additional research and new subjects increased his knowledge of the subject.
The title refers to the mask that the psychopathic personality is able to apply in everyday situations, in order to achieve their ends or get themselves out of trouble. While other manifestations of mental illness are uncontrollable and involuntary, the psychopath is able to conceal theirs when it suits their purpose.
To add to the complication, many people in the beginning stages of their psychosis behave normally most of the time, only occasionally exhibiting symptoms of aberrant behavior. Identifying the difference between the occasional bout of poor judgment and a personality disorder is strikingly difficult in these early stages. After all, writes Cleckley, Do we not...have to admit that all of us behave at times with something short of rationality and good judgment?
Yet another difficulty arises among psychiatrists in the definition and classification of the term psychopath. Definitions are inconsistent across practices, and they do not coincide with the way the term is used in clinical practice. With a broad definition and no consistency in its use, how are psychiatrists to identify and treat psychopaths?
A large part of the book consists of the dramatic stories of 13 individuals that Cleckley had the opportunity to study in his clinical work. Through these stories, he explores the characteristics that are shared among psychopaths. He also describes six incomplete manifestations of the disorder, assigning each an archetype such as the Businessman, the Gentleman, or the Scientist.
To aid in the identification of the pathology, he created a profile of 16 characteristics of the psychopath. These include behaviors like lack of remorse or shame and superficial charm. Dr. Cleckley theorized that there are more undiagnosed psychopaths than doctors had ever known, and hoped that this work would help them to be more easily identified.
The Mask of Sanity is one of the most influential works on psychopathy of the 20th century. While it does not include treatment recommendations, it has served as a foundation for the therapies and behavioral skills training now used to treat the disorder.
For the first time, these two works attributed to the great Jesse Livermore are presented together in one volume with a new foreword by Juliette Rogers. Both contain interesting insights into Livermore's life and times as well as the reasons for his success. They remain classics and must reads for every new aspirant in the world of speculation.
The two books in this volume were written in the early 1920s, when Livermore was already famous but still ascending to the peak of his wealth. The nightmare of World War I was fading, and the United States had successfully transitioned from a wartime economy into a peacetime powerhouse. Americans became enamored of cars, telephones, radios, and movies. A newfound fascination with celebrities extended beyond film stars and athletes to the rich and powerful. People wanted to know how Wall Street wizards like Jesse Livermore spun their magic.
The first book, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lef vre, offers keen insight while at the same time adding to the Livermore enigma. Reminiscences is the first-person narrative of a fictional speculator named Larry Livingston, whose life events happen to match precisely those of Jesse Livermore. As a financial journalist, biographer, and novelist, Edwin Lef vre gave his readers their much-desired glimpse into the lofty world of Wall Street elites. He wrote eight other books, but none matched the success of Reminiscences, which has remained in print since 1923 and been translated into numerous languages. Even the understated former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once called it a font of investing wisdom.
In true Livermore fashion, the book itself remains something of a mystery. Specifically, over the decades many readers have wondered if the book's author was not Lef vre, but none other than Jesse Livermore. The two men were long acquainted and may have traded useful information over the years. A 1967 biography claims that Livermore, shortly before his death, acknowledged writing Reminiscences with guidance from Lef vre, who served as editor and coach. This revelation came to the biographer secondhand and without confirmation, so the mystery continues. However, attentive readers may note the narrator's especially gleeful tone whenever windfalls are made or old scores are settled, suggesting a connection more personal than professional.
In the years following these publications, Livermore continued to burnish his legend. A 1924 run-up in wheat prices squeezed him out of $3 million, but the following year he recovered his losses and added tremendous profit when the wheat market collapsed. Of course, in this era of modest regulation, markets were vulnerable to manipulation and Livermore--by now nicknamed the Great Bear of Wall Street--did not eschew such tactics.
Complete and unabridged with all original illustrations.
The Collected Works of Ingersoll Lockwood: The Baron Trump Novels & 1900; Or, The Last President, have seen a resurgence in interest since Donald Trump's election to President of the United States in 2016. All of these titles were written before the turn of the 20th Century, but both contain eerie similarities with modern day political events. For the first time, all the works are presented in a single volume so readers can decipher for themselves whether Lockwood's words were a telling of things to come, or just a curious coincidence of American literature.
In the 1890s, Ingersoll Lockwood authored a series of children's books about the escapades of his character, the young Baron Trump: Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and his Wonderful Dog Bulger, and Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey. The series followed a literary trend of the time, which had child protagonists adventuring to enchanted lands and encountering fantastic beings. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are two famous examples of this genre.
Lockwood's Baron is an aristocratic youth bored with his life of luxury in Castle Trump. Searching for adventure, Baron travels to Russia to discover an underground world beneath his feet. He journeys downward and finds himself lost in peculiar settings surrounded by the strange inhabitants of this new world. The stories follow his adventures and eventual struggle to find his way back to the surface he left behind.
The Baron Trump novels were obscured by the more successful children's books of the time. Lockwood's tall tales seemed destined for the literary dust bin, but the election of Donald Trump in 2016 renewed interest in these works due to the President's youngest son's name: Barron Trump. Now, back in print, the Baron Trump series is enjoying considerable interest and success.
In 1900; Or, The Last President, Ingersoll Lockwood paints a picture of a politically charged New York City, where a political outsider has overcome stiff opposition to be elected President of the United States. Mob rule threatens, and marching protests rove up and down Fifth Avenue. The scene is an uncanny reflection of what happened as Donald Trump spent his days as President Elect holed up in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue as he awaited his inauguration.
The Pursuit of God, first published in 1948 by Christian pastor and writer A.W. Tozer provides a simple blueprint for living a life closer to God. Considered a Christian classic, this book was listed on Christianity Today's collection of 100 Best Books of the Century.
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) was a self-taught pastor and writer. As a young man with no formal education in theology, he was nonetheless offered a position as a pastor. For the next 44 years, he served as a spiritual leader to his congregants and wrote books, essays, and articles to share his faith and lead others closer to God.
Tozer's ongoing concern was the worldliness of the modern church. He was a fundamentalist, taking all of his theological principles directly from the scriptures and never bending the Word to fit his own beliefs. It is for this adherence to the Bible and his simple writing style that he became one of the most revered Christian writers of the 20th century.
On a long overnight train ride between Chicago and Texas in the 1940s, Tozer wrote the first draft of The Pursuit of God. The resulting book went on to become one of his best-known works. In the preface, Tozer notes the reasons why he felt the need to write this book. While there are numerous teachers engaged in the work of sharing the doctrines of Christ, ... too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. But among their listeners, Tozer felt there were many who felt within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy.
In this book, Tozer attempts to bridge this gap, helping the believers to find this deeper connection to God. Each chapter reveals another way that the reader can improve his or her relationship with the Creator. For those that feel the urge to pursue God, this work is a valuable guide. It includes lessons on materialism, the proper relation of man to God, and the true value of meekness, among others.
As he often does, Tozer argues against worldliness and distraction, even within the church. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity, he says. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.
A major theme of the book is developing your personal experience of God. Just as you have five senses that let you interact with the world around you, you have a spiritual sense that lets you interact with the Creator. When you accept God's universal Presence, you start to accept that you will never be closer to Him in heaven than you are right now. But you can get to know Him better through prayer and faith.
Tozer also warns that there is no need to separate your life into two parts, the spiritual and the secular. Our sacred acts like attending church, studying the Bible, and prayer do not need to feel so divorced from the worldly acts of eating, sleeping, and working. Life is not meant to be lived with spirituality in one hemisphere, and the real world in another. After all, Christ Himself came to Earth in a human body, and he had to feed it and care for it just like you do.
In simple prose, Tozer helps to lead the reader out of a superficial relationship to God and toward a deeper connection with Him. It is in this pursuit that Christians can find His Presence, not just in church, but around and within them.
The Game with Minutes (1953) by missionary Frank C. Laubach is a short work that asks Christians to bring Christ into every minute of their day. Rather than approaching this goal as a chore, the book treats it as a game that will feed the practitioner's soul and lead them to a greater, more joyful relationship with Christ.
American missionary, writer, and literary advocate Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) spent much of his life building evangelical churches and spreading Christianity throughout the Philippines. As part of his religious work, he also placed a heavy emphasis on literacy, developing an each one teach one method encouraging new readers to help others. His work led to an explosion of literacy across the island.
During his missionary work in the Philippine city of Dansalan (renamed Marawi in 1956), Laubach wrote a series of letters to his father. It's in one of these letters, dated January 20, 1930, that he first mentions his new plan of bringing Christ into every minute of his life. After his own experimentation with a fuller submission to God, Laubach found great spiritual growth and renewal from the practice.
A few years after writing that letter, he published this short tract, The Game with Minutes, in the Philippines. It's immediately clear that what began as a personal experiment had grown into a philosophy that he was eager to share with the world. To bring Christians closer to God, Laubach recommends a two-part strategy that will bring Christ into their lives more fully. Taking the disciples as his guides, who were asked to spend every hour talking, working, resting, eating, and being with Christ, he suggests a two-part strategy for the modern Christian.
First, he suggests a daily study hour in which to read and re-read the life of Jesus in the Gospels. And second, he asks the reader to call Christ to mind at least one second of every minute, inviting Him to share in everything we do. This practice allows Christians to continue living their normal lives, taking nothing away from their work or leisure but bringing Christ into their everyday lives.
We call this a 'game, ' he writes, because it is a delightful experience and an exhilarating spiritual exercise; but we soon discover that it is far more than a game.
Laubach includes recommendations for playing the game, with ways to incorporate thoughts of Christ into church, while walking on the street, in a crowd, in conversation, at mealtimes, while reading or studying, when thinking, just before sleep, and more. Through this consistent thought, Laubach explains, we can find a better relationship with Christ, purer minds, greater contentment and ease of mind, and fewer jealousies, grudges, and prejudices.
But these rewards do not come without a cost. There is the effort and perseverance necessary to stick with the game. There is the surrender of our wills to God. And he proposes the requirement to spread the word of the game to others who may be helped by it.
Laubach believed that playing this game could have an enormous impact on the world, as well as the individual. Among his contemporaries, he noticed that less than half of Christians attended church services regularly and that the sermons they heard only occasionally spoke about Christ.
Less than ten minutes a week given to thinking about Christ by one-sixth of the people is not saving our country or our world; for selfishness, greed, and hate are getting a thousand times that much thought. What a nation thinks about, that it is.
It was his hope that by playing the game, Christians could become a stronger force for good-not through coercion or proselytizing, but by bringing Christ into every minute of the day and every interaction in the world.
Pellegrino Artusi's Italian Cook Book is a collection of Italian recipes first published in 1891. This version was edited and translated by New York-based academic Olga Ragusa in 1945. It contains nearly 400 recipes that highlight the art of traditional Italian cooking at a time when French cuisine had long dominated the kitchens and plates of gourmands.
Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) was an unlikely person to revitalize Italian cuisine, being neither a professional chef nor a formal culinary scholar. Artusi was born in Forlimpopoli to a wealthy merchant father, and he successfully took over the family's business as a young man. His life-and that of his family-was violently disrupted in 1851, when the criminal Stefano Pelloni arrived in town. He and his gang disrupted a play and held all the wealthy families hostage in the theater while they robbed and sacked the town. One of Artusi's sisters was assaulted during the raid and the ensuing shock placed her in an asylum. (Pelloni was killed just two months later in a gunfight.)
After the trauma, Artusi and his family moved to Florence, where he began working as a silk merchant and later in finance. During his free time, he devoted himself to the art of Italian cooking. French cooking had been considered the gold standard in culinary circles for centuries, but Artusi rejected the notion that French food was superior to his native Italian. He devoted himself to learning more about the cuisine of his ancestors.
By 1891, at the age of 71, Artusi had completed what is considered the original Italian cookbook. He had compiled and edited recipes from much of the newly unified Italy, creating for the first time a broader manual to the nation's various culinary styles. Still, the book's recipes lean toward the northern culinary styles of Romagna and Tuscany.
Unable to find a publisher, he funded and self-published the work. It was a modest success at first, selling a thousand copies in four years. But word spread, and before his death in 1911, the book had sold over 200,000 copies.
This version was edited and translated by the New York-based linguist, scholar, and academic Olga Ragusa. It was published in 1945 by the S.F. Vanni publishing house, then owned by her father.
Containing nearly 400 recipes, the instructions in the Italian Cook Book are simple to follow and can be easily recreated in the modern kitchen-with some exceptions. Sourcing the two dozen large frogs for Frog Soup may prove a challenge. But the recipes for handmade pasta, gnocchi, and ravioli in the Romagna and Genoese styles are simple and approachable.
Crostinis, slices of toast piled with savory toppings, make delicious appetizers when topped with anchovies, caviar, or chicken liver. Italian-style sauces are abundant, including caper sauce for drizzling over boiled fish, meatless sauce for spaghetti, and the sauce of the Pope-a briny sauce from the caper vinegar, sweetened olives, chopped onions, butter, and an anchovy.
The home cook will find some meats that are easy to source-chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, pork, and plenty of fish. Others will prove more difficult to find, like partridge, blackbird, wild boar, and thrush. Some of the less common organ meats are also used, including tongue, kidneys, and liver.
Italian home cooks will want to linger in the dessert section, full of simple cakes, pies, and puddings, as well as rustic fruit dishes like pears in syrup and peaches stuffed with candied orange peel and nuts.
Artusi is considered by many to be the father of modern Italian cuisine. Since 1997, he has been celebrated each year in his birthplace of Forlimpopoli with Festa Atrusiana, an Italian food festival.
Color Psychology and Color Therapy: A Factual Study of the Influence of Color on Human Life (1950) is a book of color theory by renowned color expert Faber Birren. The work explores the impact of color on human behavior and emotions.
Born in 1900 in Chicago, Illinois, Birren began studying color and art as a teen at the Art Institute of Chicago. While he originally intended to follow in his father's footsteps as a landscape painter, he determined that he didn't have the requisite talent.
He attended the University of Chicago as an education major instead, but found that his interest was still in the world of color. Since no formal program in color theory existed at the time, he left school to pursue a course of self-managed study, spending hours at the Chicago Public Library.
At age 24, Birren began a prolific writing career, publishing dozens of books and articles on color theory over the course of his life. Soon, he began consulting for businesses, claiming he could boost sales with the careful use of color.
One of Birren's early successes was a Chicago wholesale meat company. He suggested that the white walls of the meat coolers made the meat appear an unappetizing gray color. He proposed that the meat company paint the coolers in a blue-green color instead, to make the meat's red hue pop. Sales increased, and Birren had proven that paying attention to color theory could reap dividends.
Birren brought this expertise to many well-known corporations throughout the middle of the 20th century. He consulted with major manufacturers like Monsanto, General Electric, and DuPont, among others. His goals went beyond sales, aiming to improve employee mood and attentiveness as well. He even consulted with Disney on the color choices in the films Bambi, Fantasia, and Pinocchio.
Color Psychology and Color Therapy is written in four parts. In part one, Birren discusses color symbolism in varied mystic, occultist, and religious traditions. He also shares the views on color expressed by various ancient philosophers.
In part two, Birren takes a scientific approach to color. He explores the electromagnetic spectrum and the effects of certain wavelengths of light and color on plants, animals, and the human body.
In part three, Birren turns his attention to the psychological impacts of color on human behavior and emotions. Unsurprisingly, the impact of color on mood and behavior is far more complex than red makes us happy and gray makes us sad. It is a complex blend of context, personal associations, and subjective impressions, which Birren explores in depth.
Finally, part four focuses on the visual aspects of color, like the function of the eye and how it perceives different colors. Through a deliberate use of color, Birren argues that we can reduce eye strain and fatigue, and improve efficiency and safety. He also explores visual difficulties, like color blindness and night blindness, their causes, and their effects.
Birren's contributions to the field of color theory are still seen today. Colorful safety margins painted around factory equipment and purple-topped pool tables (instead of the traditional green) are both among his many legacies.
The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe (1946) by Glenn Clark is a work of biography and philosophy, exploring the life and ideas of the versatile artist, writer, and philosopher Walter Russell.
New Thought writer and professor Glenn Clark (b. 1882, d. 1956) was a fervent believer in the power of prayer and the Light of God to reveal the secrets of the universe. As he explains in Chapter One: We Go Seeking, he had been searching ...for a man who has discovered the universal law which lies back of the Sermon on the Mount, and who consciously uses that law with full awareness of its meaning, and full obedience to its principles. He believed that he had found that man in Walter Russell.
Walter Russell (b. 1871, d. 1963) was a man who seemed preternaturally adept at everything he wished to try. After being removed from school at the age of nine and sent to work at a dry goods store, he worked a number of low-paying jobs. But he had absolute faith...that anything can come to one who trusts to the unlimited help of the Universal Intelligence that is within so long as one works within the law and always gives more to others than they expect, and does it cheerfully and courteously.
Throughout his life, he found success as a musician, painter, sculptor, writer, ice skater, philosopher, and lecturer. He was commissioned to sculpt a 28-figure Mark Twain Memorial just a few years after he began sculpting. And in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked him to sculpt the Four Freedoms Monument. He designed several buildings in New York City and invented the cooperative ownership model (aka the co-op). And most of these pursuits were undertaken with no formal education.
By the time Clark met with Russell, he had achieved success in his artistic, literary, architectural, physical, and even scientific pursuits. So when Clark was searching for a man who knew the secrets of the universe and was referred to Russell on more than one occasion, he knew that he had to meet him.
Large portions of the book, particularly in the chapters We Meet the Man, We Meet the Man of Action, and The Five Laws of Success, are presented as an interview with Russell, giving us insight into his beliefs straight from the source.
Every successful man or great genius has three particular qualities in common, he says. The most conspicuous of these is that they all produce a prodigious amount of work. The second is that they never know fatigue. And the third is that their minds grow more brilliant as they grow older, instead of less brilliant. Great men's lives begin at forty, where the mediocre man's life ends. The genius remains an ever-flowing fountain of creative achievement until the very last breath he draws.
At the heart of Russell's philosophy is a belief that every man has consummate genius within him. Some appear to have it more than others only because they are aware of it more than others are, and the awareness or unawareness of it is what makes each one of them into masters or holds them down to mediocrity...
To know that we have genius inside of us, and to have absolute faith in our inner voice and in the Universe, is to unlock that genius. Through the story of Russell's brilliant life and his Five Personal Laws of Success (humility, reverence, inspiration, deep purpose, and joy), the reader gets a plain-language example of genius-in-action.
He demonstrated his great energy, lack of fatigue, and ever-flowing fountain of genius throughout his long life, maintaining his creativity until his death in 1963 at the age of 92.
Mary Howitt's classic 19th Century poem, The Spider and the Fly, warns its young readers against the danger of flattery and evil counsel. In her famous tale, the flitting Fly is overwhelmed by the cunning Spider, due in part to the Spider's deception, but also because of the Fly's own sins of vanity and naivety. The poem is told in an engaging rhyme and rhythm and is colorfully illustrated by Ukrainian artist Yelyzaveta Anysymova. This edition of Howitt's tale of moral hazard is a great addition to any child's bookshelf.
Mary Howitt (1799-1888) was an English author of over 180 books, many written for children. Among her literary accomplishments were her translations of many tales by Hans Christian Andersen and her work as an editor on the Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book. She was recognized and rewarded for her life's work with a silver medal from the Literary Academy of Stockholm and a Civil List Pension from the United Kingdom.
Yelyzaveta Anysymova is a self-taught children's book artist from Ukraine. She draws inspiration from the people and beauty of her hometown of Zaporizhzhia.
Pellegrino Artusi's Italian Cook Book is a collection of Italian recipes first published in 1891. This version was edited and translated by New York-based academic Olga Ragusa in 1945. It contains nearly 400 recipes that highlight the art of traditional Italian cooking at a time when French cuisine had long dominated the kitchens and plates of gourmands.
Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) was an unlikely person to revitalize Italian cuisine, being neither a professional chef nor a formal culinary scholar. Artusi was born in Forlimpopoli to a wealthy merchant father, and he successfully took over the family's business as a young man. His life-and that of his family-was violently disrupted in 1851, when the criminal Stefano Pelloni arrived in town. He and his gang disrupted a play and held all the wealthy families hostage in the theater while they robbed and sacked the town. One of Artusi's sisters was assaulted during the raid and the ensuing shock placed her in an asylum. (Pelloni was killed just two months later in a gunfight.)
After the trauma, Artusi and his family moved to Florence, where he began working as a silk merchant and later in finance. During his free time, he devoted himself to the art of Italian cooking. French cooking had been considered the gold standard in culinary circles for centuries, but Artusi rejected the notion that French food was superior to his native Italian. He devoted himself to learning more about the cuisine of his ancestors.
By 1891, at the age of 71, Artusi had completed what is considered the original Italian cookbook. He had compiled and edited recipes from much of the newly unified Italy, creating for the first time a broader manual to the nation's various culinary styles. Still, the book's recipes lean toward the northern culinary styles of Romagna and Tuscany.
Unable to find a publisher, he funded and self-published the work. It was a modest success at first, selling a thousand copies in four years. But word spread, and before his death in 1911, the book had sold over 200,000 copies.
This version was edited and translated by the New York-based linguist, scholar, and academic Olga Ragusa. It was published in 1945 by the S.F. Vanni publishing house, then owned by her father.
Containing nearly 400 recipes, the instructions in the Italian Cook Book are simple to follow and can be easily recreated in the modern kitchen-with some exceptions. Sourcing the two dozen large frogs for Frog Soup may prove a challenge. But the recipes for handmade pasta, gnocchi, and ravioli in the Romagna and Genoese styles are simple and approachable.
Crostinis, slices of toast piled with savory toppings, make delicious appetizers when topped with anchovies, caviar, or chicken liver. Italian-style sauces are abundant, including caper sauce for drizzling over boiled fish, meatless sauce for spaghetti, and the sauce of the Pope-a briny sauce from the caper vinegar, sweetened olives, chopped onions, butter, and an anchovy.
The home cook will find some meats that are easy to source-chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, pork, and plenty of fish. Others will prove more difficult to find, like partridge, blackbird, wild boar, and thrush. Some of the less common organ meats are also used, including tongue, kidneys, and liver.
Italian home cooks will want to linger in the dessert section, full of simple cakes, pies, and puddings, as well as rustic fruit dishes like pears in syrup and peaches stuffed with candied orange peel and nuts.
Artusi is considered by many to be the father of modern Italian cuisine. Since 1997, he has been celebrated each year in his birthplace of Forlimpopoli with Festa Atrusiana, an Italian food festival.
Victory Over Vice (1939) is one of several books by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen exploring the Seven Last Words of Christ during His Crucifixion. In this short work, Archbishop Sheen considers each of the final utterances of Christ from the perspective of one of the capital sins. He demonstrates how each phrase proves the purity of Jesus Christ, and he uses each as an instruction on how we, too, can overcome these mortal vices.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) was a well-known priest and media personality throughout the mid-20th century. First ordained in 1919, he began his priesthood in the Diocese of Peoria. Always seeking greater theological and philosophical understanding, he continued his education at the Catholic University of America, the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, and the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum in Rome.
In 1930, Archbishop Sheen became a weekly contributor to the popular radio show, The Catholic Hour, a position he held for 20 years. In the 1950s, he expanded his media appearances to include Life is Worth Living, a successful Catholic television program. This show earned him an Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality in 1953.
While sharing his wisdom on television and radio, he also taught at the Catholic University of America, and wrote dozens of books and essays on matters of scripture, faith, and spirituality. In several works, Archbishop Sheen returned to the topic of Christ's Seven Last Words in his writing, including in Victory Over Vice.
In this work, Archbishop Sheen uses the Seven Last Words as a guide through the perils of the seven deadly sins. Each of these sins led to the crucifixion. But we were also given a guide to overcoming them during the life and death of Jesus Christ. By understanding them, we can guard against them and use His example to guide our own lives.
Archbishop Sheen is careful to define each of these sins and to explain when they cross from an acceptable behavior or trait into a dangerous failing. Envy, for example, can be justified and even helpful when it inspires us to emulate good example and to progress with those who are our betters. But it becomes a sin when it is a wilful grieving at another's good, either spiritual or temporal, for the reason that it seems to diminish our own good.
Throughout each of the Seven Words, Christ shows us how we should behave when faced with sin in ourselves or in others. When he is faced with the anger of the masses, he begs, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. When faced with the thief to the left who envies His Power, he instead turns to the thief on the right and pronounces that This day thou shalt be with me in paradise. When faced with the pride of those who have turned from God, He permits Himself to feel God-lessness and it broke His heart in the saddest of all cries: 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'
Faced with anger, envy, lust, pride, gluttony, sloth, and covetousness leading up to and throughout His death, Christ shows us how to respond to each in others and in ourselves. It is a simple matter to preach what we should do to avoid sin. But to see how Christ responded when faced with it, and avoided it in His own purity, is a true gift.
The study of Christ's final words is an important area of meditation for the faithful. They prove the consistency of His teachings. From the Sermon on the Mount to His actions through His life to these last phrases, we see how He traversed the trials of life. And we find a blueprint to avoid sin and cleanse our own souls.
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit, first published in 1952, is a collection of four sermons by preacher and writer A.W. Tozer. The series explains the Christian relationship to the Holy Spirit-who He is, and how to receive Him.
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) was a self-educated pastor, writer, and mentor. He spent his career preaching and educating with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He wrote for the group's magazine Alliance Weekly, as well as for other publications like Christian Life.
Tozer's fundamentalism was built on a foundation of prayer, which he advocated to his congregants. He prayed for several hours each day, building his personal relationship with God.
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit provides a deep exploration of the third-and least understood-part of the Holy Trinity.
The first sermon, titled Who is the Holy Spirit, begins with an explanation of who exactly He is. For He is a Person, although one that is not made of physical matter. He is a Person... Tozer writes, with all the qualities and powers of personality. He is not matter, but He is substance.
As a spirit, He can penetrate physical matter. He can be all around us and within us, if we are ready to receive Him. Tozer writes, He has not weight, nor measure, nor size, nor any color, no extension in space, but He nevertheless exists as surely as you exist.
But who is He exactly? Using proof from scripture, creeds, and hymns, he shows that the Holy Spirit is no more and no less than God the Creator Himself. Placed on equal footing with the Father and the Son in scripture, the third corner of that triangle must be equally divine.
In the second sermon, The Promise of the Father, Tozer explains how the Holy Spirit came to us here on Earth. The arrival of the Holy Spirit is the realization of God the Father's promise to us. The Holy Spirit is God's gift, sent back after Christ's resurrection and ascension. Upon His arrival, He filled the followers of Jesus Christ. And He is still here, ready to fill those of us who are prepared and ask to be filled.
The next sermon, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, asks vital questions. Are you sure you want to be filled with the Spirit? Tozer asks, Do you want Him to be Lord of your life? That you want His benefits, I know ... But do you want to be possessed by Him? ... Are you sure that you want your personality to be taken over by One who will expect obedience to the written and living Word?
After all, to be filled with the Holy Spirit means you must live your life in and for Christ. You must reject the worldliness in which you have been raised. You may not tolerate evil, turning a blind eye to anything that would displease God. To get closer to God, you must get further away from the world.
The final sermon explains How to Cultivate the Spirit's Companionship. For those who are fully committed, they must treat the Holy Spirit as a living Person and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. As we honor Jesus, he says, the Spirit of God becomes glad within us. He ceases to hold back, He relaxes and becomes intimate and communes and imparts Himself; and the sun comes up and heaven comes near as Jesus Christ becomes our all in all.
In the preface to this collection, Tozer apologizes for the racy style in these sermons, stating that Had [he] been writing the messages, [he] would have taken greater care in the composition. But in fact, it is this casual style that makes the sermons so effective. The reader can imagine sitting with a trusted spiritual mentor, receiving life-changing personal advice from someone who has themselves been filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Healing Light (1947) by Agnes Sanford is a personal exploration and explanation of prayer and healing. By becoming a channel for God's love and power, Mrs. Sanford explains, we can heal ourselves, each other, and the world at large.
Agnes Sanford (b. 1897, d. 1982) was born in China, the daughter of a Presbyterian missionary. She spent her youth and teen years in Shanghai, until leaving for the United States to attend college. After completing her schooling, she returned to China in 1919. It was while working as an English teacher at Soochow Academy in Shanghai that she met and married her husband, the missionary Edgar Sanford.
The pair, along with their young son, returned to the U.S. in 1925, where Edgar received a job as a pastor in New Jersey. More children followed, but Agnes found herself depressed-a condition she suffered from for many years. When an Episcopalian priest, Hollis Colwell, laid hands on her and prayed over her, she found immediate relief from her symptoms.
Convinced by his healing abilities, Agnes began sending others to Colwell for healing. But he suggested that she, too, could channel the healing power of God. As she began to study God's Word in depth, she found that her prayers also could heal.
Agnes began to teach and write on the subject of healing. Her first book, The Healing Light, shares her simple techniques for creating the right environment within ourselves to welcome God's healing.
A recurring metaphor that she uses is that of electricity. If you flip on a light switch and the light doesn't come on, you would logically conclude that there is a problem with the lamp-not that electricity doesn't exist. Similarly, when our prayers aren't answered and healing doesn't come, it's not because there is no God, but because we are not properly connected to His love and energy.
She writes, ...just as a whole world full of electricity will not light a house unless the house itself is prepared to receive that electricity, so the infinite and eternal life of God cannot help us unless we are prepared to receive that life within ourselves.
Written in a friendly, conversational tone, Mrs. Sanford shares dozens of anecdotes of successful healing methods. While some of these modern miracles were accomplished through her own prayers, many others were the result of her sharing her techniques with others and allowing them to heal themselves.
While Mrs. Sanford was raised Presbyterian, her healing does not only live within the rigid confines of religious ideology. Her stories of healing include Jews, Roman Catholics, and children too young to understand any particular theology. As Glenn Clark explains in the introduction, her healing powers came through simple exposure to the climate of faith and love.
A decade after its release, The Healing Light became a foundational work of the Charismatic Movement. This theological movement within Christianity holds that baptism with the Holy Spirit can lead to a new awareness of reality, as well as gifts from God including gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, and speaking in tongues. This is in contrast to the more mainstream cessationist theology, which states that God's miracles only briefly existed in New Testament times, and ceased during the early centuries A.D.
Mrs. Sanford was a prolific writer and speaker. She wrote over fifteen books and traveled extensively to minister in New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Holland, and England. In her later years, she devoted her prayer energy to steadying the fault lines of Southern California, hoping to prevent or lessen the impact of earthquakes in the region. Interestingly, there were only three major earthquakes in the area in the 17 years that she lived and prayed there.