by Andrew DeSio | Filed in: In the News | 4:44pm EST
Our author John Gribbin, who co-wrote with his wife Mary the new bio JAMES LOVELOCK: In Search of Gaia, gets a surprise plug by superstar golfer Tiger Woods in photos taken following his auto incident. It seems John’s previous book Get a Grip on Physics was being read while driving. Zany publicity stunt? Doubtful. But it’s good to see Tiger beefing up on his physics knowledge–just don’t do it while driving.
Who publishes the books that the Top 100 Foreign Policy Global Thinkers recommend? Turns out we do.Of the list, FP writes, “Looking for gift ideas for the budding global thinker on your list? Want to be as well-informed as FP’s top 100? Here are the top 142 books on their shelves, from wonky policy briefs to biographies to children’s books to fantasy novels, plus detailed recommendations from some of the smartest people on the planet.”
Joseph Frank’s award-winning, five-volume DOSTOEVSKY is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language—and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank’s monumental, 2500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed into a single, highly readable (if absolutely enormous!) volume. Carefully preserving the original work’s acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, DOSTOEVSKY: A Writer in His Timeilluminates the writer’s works—from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov—by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context.
On the Stanford University site, where Frank is professor emeritus, Cynthia Haven has penned an engaging article on the new book, and the inspirations of Joseph Frank, and includes an interview with the esteemed author. Here is a link to the full story.
Many of the reviews of the Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide and its Western counterpart have focused on the benefits of photographic guides vs. illustrated guides. So far, the response has been mostly favorable for our guide and in this recent review at 10,000 Birds, Mike Bergin writes, “can these Photographic Guides live up to the standard of a top-notch illustrated field guide? I think they do.”
He even writes, “In fact, I’d probably feel better using this guide’s stunning photo of a Warbling Vireo against a bird in the field than I would any of the illustrations I’ve seen.”
So, as a little bonus, Brian Small has provided the photographs of the Warbling Vireo so you can judge for yourself. Do the photographs live up to Mike’s assessment?
I can’t embed a clip here, but click over to C-Span’s site to watch Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s talk about the perils of digital memory: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ID/214450. This was taped at Townhall Seattle in October.
The Spring 2010 catalog features new paperback editions of some of our most popular books from 2008 and 2009 (and even one from much earlier). Unlike previous years, though, many of the covers for these books have been wholly redesigned or substantially tweaked. I asked PUP Art Director Maria Lindenfeldar and our talented designers to chime in on these new cover designs. What do you think of these new covers? Vote below.
“The first design was done by a freelancer, and it never came together as hoped. The redesign was an attempt to match the editor’s original vision more closely. The artwork for the second version was spotted by the editor in a review of the hardcover edition.”
“We wanted the paperback edition to look distinctive yet familiar. The type has been reworked to make it more playful and to integrate it more closely with the Ed Koran image. The redesign also included a promotional quote and a new background color.”
“The original jacket was gorgeous, but it didn’t reflect the content of the book. The iPod is one of the major examples Bhide uses to support his argument that technology developed abroad can have positive effects on the Western economy. Putting it on the cover just made a lot of sense.”
“The set of steps on the original jacket was a symbol of change and decline, but that image was quite abstract. For the paperback, we used “the empty suit” as a visual metaphor; it alludes to the loss of idealism that Khurana argues was originally a critical part of a business school education.”
“Simple really – this book is not just a paperback of a hardback original (we did that for this book some long time ago). This is a new edition of a paperback of a hardback original. We needed to draw attention to the fact that the book is different from the original editions. BUT the original cover design was so good, we didn’t want to try striking out with an entirely new concept. So, what we did was to simply freshen up and adapt the original by adding some color and making the skyline more identifiable as a ‘financial center’. “
“The redesign was meant to emphasize that this is a work of fiction aimed at a college-age audience. The stylized möbius strip alludes to an infinity symbol (a subject studied by the main character) and represents an intellectual and philosophical journey undertaken by the main character and his grandfather. The original jacket was a photograph of the author and his grandson. “
by Jessica Pellien | Filed in: World History | 9:44am EST
“The tale of the UN’s creation has been told in various ways: as dry diplomatic history, as a riveting spy story, and much in between. But it has never been told like this before,” writes Simon Rushton in the Times Higher Education review of No Enchanted Palace by Mark Mazower.
Featuring commentary and interviews from Princeton University Press authors, the PUP Blog is a highly respected, timely and indispensable source for learning, understanding and reflection.
Joseph Frank’s award-winning, five-volume DOSTOEVSKY is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language—and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank’s monumental, 2500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed into a single, highly readable (if absolutely enormous!) volume. Carefully preserving the original work’s acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, DOSTOEVSKY: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writer’s works—from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov—by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context.
Michael O’Hanlon, author of The Science of War: Defense Budgeting, Military Technology, Logistics, and Combat Outcomes was on ‘Top Line’ discussing President Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy.
