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Full page photograph of Bunny Yeager - Miami mermaid test the surf in warm Biscayne Bay. Includes: Bunker Busters; Parts of the Corps Key West; New Sight Picture; Bait Your Hooks! Part 2; Under the Globe and Eagle; Combat Art; Ten Year Later Corregidor; humor; Mule Marines; Fabulous Transport; Commie Maxim; Meet the Chapm; Sea Going Salts; Dateline Korea ... Read more

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This publication catalogues and explores the latest sculptural installation by Robert Gober, one of contemporary art's most highly regarded figures and one of our best storytellers. Unlike anything that has been seen before, this new work explores questions of sexuality, religion, relationships, nature, and memory, all informed by the current political climate. Loosely following the floor plan of a church, the installation brings together many of Gober's known sculptural motifs and introduces new ones as he continues into uncharted artistic territory. The first of the two volumes includes a comprehensive essay by Brenda Richardson written over the course of the two years of the installation's development. Richardson spent hours in the studio in conversation with Gober, and her Lexicon provides an unprecedented glimpse at the working process and multiple layers of meaning in Gober's complex work. The lavishly illustrated second volume reproduces 50 full-color photographs of the completed work. ... Read more

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Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example influence readers to this day. Drawing on a vast amount of new material, this award-winning book brings to life an Emerson very different from the stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord, providing a rewarding intellectual biography that is also a portrait of the whole man. 26 photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Great introduction to Emerson
I had tried to read Emerson but had no context.This bio is a great insight into Emerson and how he developed his ideas and writings.

The Value of This Book
In the past, my experience in reading Emerson has been similar to reading the Tao Te Ching; interesting, non-mainstream in its point of view, puzzling to understand what exactly it means. So I would pick up the Tao and read it at different times of the day and different frames of mind, hoping that it would resonate with me, but it never did. Maybe it was the cultural difference, or the language, or not being able to easily identify with Lao Tzu. Such had been my experience with Emerson. I wanted to understand him better because what little I did understand made me want to learn more, but I just couldn't get there.

This biographer, Richardson, really did his homework and any who want to understand Emerson better should appreciate this work. Emerson kept exhaustive journals and collections of his thoughts for many years. He read widely and deeply, kept detailed notes, and thoroughly indexed the notes. What perfect material to access for writing a biography!Apparently Richardson went back and studied much of the source material that Emerson references in his journals and brings into this biography an understanding of who Emerson was reading and what it meant to Emerson, so we receive the pleasure of following along on a journey in the development of a powerful mind. Then Richardson is able to write about this development so that it is easily readable to us moderns. It's quite a remarkable achievement.

"Mind on Fire" shows me that Richardson is certain that studying Emerson and his message is worthwhile. So much consideration has gone into this biography that when I laid it down after almost non-stop reading for several days over the holidays, I felt like I really understood Emerson for the first time, and now have much better insight. I plan to let this book simmer in my mind a few more months, then pick it up and read it again.

If Richardson could also write something as lucid and detailed to help me understand the Tao Te Ching, I wouldn't have 10,000 questions about the 10,000 things. ;-)

When the genius of biography meets the genius of literature
Mr. Richardson's 'Thoreau A Life of the Mind' was not only the best biography I've read on Thoreau, but one of the most exhilerating and enlightening reading experiences of my life. So I decided to read his 'Emerson The Mind on Fire.' And it was every bit as intimate and intelligent.

There are times you feel that you're intruding upon Waldo and Henry on one of their walks. It was an endless stroll of two intellectuals and humanists on the path of being very human. Each of the one hundred chapters (both books) are kept short, which helps move the reader from topic to topic without ever feeling put upon (too much detail can drag what is otherwise very interesting.) Though, for me personally, I would love to savor every moment these two great men shared. I don't think I could ever get bored.

Emerson has many close friends with whom one gets to know intimately. His personal address book was a whose whose of literary and intellectual greats.

The relationship between Emerson and his second wife, Lidian, is of great interest. She was also intellectual and as much a partner in life as she was a wife. Her presence is everywhere in Emerson's life.

Emerson's essays are pure poetry. And the behind the scene snippets into how they became a part of his legacy was both insightful and relevant to the day to day interactions and causes he committed himself. His transformation from the unremarkable child into the neverending 'student' of self-education and commitment to social conscience throughout his entire adult life is one to be admired.

Mr. Richardson is one of the best biographers of nineteenth century literaries. He is truly one with his topic.

Perennial Philosophy in the Key of Americana
Robust account of one of the seminal figures of early America, one attempting the creation of an indigenous culture cast in a more universal mode than that of the provincial Christianity of his roots. The courage to give up his secure life as a minister for the uncertainties of exploration and creative renewal marks Emerson's trail through a pioneer's psychological American wilderntess, to touch on and integrate everything from the post-Kantians, to the Buddhists/Hindus to the Persians and Sufis. That Emerson evolved into a near firebrand abolitionist is an aspect of his life unsufficiently told, and this part of his later career runs clear in this book. All in all, a first rate pioneer story of another kind.

Firing the Mind
This is the only biography of Emerson that truly matters. Richardson locks in on the essentials - the development of a seeking mind is search of the ground of being and the nature of reality. Emerson is our Founding Thinker and to do him justice, a biographer has to grapple with the how and why a mind grows, changes, struggles and reaches new heights. Even if you haven't read much Emerson, this biography sheds light on what Emerson meant when he said, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." ... Read more