Recent Acquisitions

Here are summaries of recent acquisitions to the library collection. Some of these have been selected by faculty, some by my assessments of curricular holes, and some because they are recent winners of various literary awards.

Non-fiction:

• Collected Poems, Prose & Plays by Robert Frost / Summary: Included are all of the plays, a generous selection of prose, all collected poems, and 94 uncollected poems, as well as 17 poems that were previously unpublished. The 1949 Complete Poems is the principle source for the poetry. In The Clearing (1962), as the only subsequent volume Frost published, is given a separate contents entry. Sources are given for all published and unpublished work. The 45 pages of notes cover the "significant differences" between first editions and the Complete Poems, including deleted dedications, notes and dates, and changes in wording. The notes also include helpful definitions and frequent attribution of quotation. Of the prose we are told that most of what is included "bears directly on [Frost's] work as a poet." Many of these texts are based on significant new editorial work by Richardson.
• The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942 / edited by Chava Pressburger; translated from the Czech by Elena Lappin / Summary: Lost for sixty years in a Prague attic, this secret diary of a teenage prodigy killed at Auschwitz is an extraordinary literary discovery, an intimately candid, deeply affecting account of a childhood compromised by Nazi tyranny. As a fourteen-year old Jewish boy living in Prague in the early 1940s, Petr Ginz dutifully records the increasingly precarious texture of daily life. With a child's keen eye for the absurd and the tragic, he muses on the prank he played on his science class and then just pages later, reveals that his cousins have been called to relinquish all their possessions, having been summoned east in the next transport. The diary ends with Petr's own summons to Thereisenstadt, where he would become the driving force behind the secret newspaper Vedem, and where he would continue to draw, paint, write, and read, furiously educating himself for a future he would never see. Fortunately, Petr's voice lives on in his diary, a fresh, startling, and invaluable historical document and a testament to one remarkable child's insuppressible hunger for life.
• The Last Human : a Guide to Twenty-two Species of Extinct Humans / created by G.J. Sawyer and Viktor Deak ; text by Esteban Sarmiento, G.J. Sawyer and Richard Milner ; with contributions by Donald C. Johanson, Maeve Leakey and Ian Tattersall / Summary: This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album. The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions.
• The Writer’s Market / Summary: The classic resource for every writer who wants to be published, this volume features more than 3,500 market listings including 500 new markets for 2007.

Biography:

• Einstein : His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson / Summary: The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals. These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.
• Lighting the Way : Nine Women Who Changed Modern America by Karenna Gore Schiff / Summary: This inspirational look at nine women who changed modern America profiles Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mother Jones, Alice Hamilton, Frances Perkins, Virginia Durr, Septima Clark, Dolores Huerta, Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, and Gretchen Buchenholz--women who in their own ways tackled inequity and advocated change.

Fiction:

• Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey / Summary: In 1145 A.D., as foretold by Merlin, fourteen-year-old Rosalind, who will be the twenty-first Pendragon Queen of Wilde Island, has much to accomplish to fulfill her destiny, while hiding from her people the dragon’s claw she was born with that reflects only one of her mother’s dark secrets.
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand / Summary: When it was first published in 1943, The Fountainhead -- containing Ayn Rand’s daringly original literary vision with the seeds of her groundbreaking philosophy, Objectivism -- won immediate worldwide acclaim. This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him. This centennial edition of The Fountainhead, celebrating the controversial and enduring legacy of its author, features an afterword by Rand's literary executor, Leonard Peikoff, offering some of Ayn Rand's personal notes on the development of her masterwork
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling / Summary: Burdened with the dark, dangerous, and seemingly impossible task of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, Harry, feeling alone and uncertain about his future, struggles to find the inner strength he needs to follow the path set out before him.
• Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman / Summary: Following Callum’s death, the people who loved him relate how their lives have been changed, especially in reference to his girlfriend, Sephy, and their mixed-race child. Persephone Hadley is six months pregnant with a mixed-race baby. In their society this fact alone will threaten the child’s life every day. To make matters worse, the baby’s father, Callum, is dead. He was hanged for terrorism months ago, but his presence still torments Sephy. And she’s not alone. Callum’s brother, Jude, blames Sephy for the death, and thirsts for revenge...in the form of her life. Obviously, Sephy is not fond of Jude, but when his actions take him to the brink of disaster, his life poised on a knife edge, can she stand by and do nothing? Will she be forced -- once again -- to take sides in a chilling racial drama?
• Rucker Park Setup by Paul Volponi / Summary: Best friends Mackey and J.R. have waited their whole lives to win the basketball tournament at Rucker Park, where their favorite pro ballers squared off against street legends. But the day of their big game, J.R. is fatally stabbed and its Mackey’s fault, even though he didn’t wield the knife. Now Mackey has a score to settle, but the killer is watching his every move.
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl / Summary: A darkly funny coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. After a childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father (a man prone to aphorisms and meteoric affairs), Blue is clever, deadpan, and possessed of a vast lexicon of literary, political, philosophical, and scientific knowledge--and is quite the cineaste to boot. In her final year of high school at the elite (and unusual) St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina, Blue falls in with a charismatic group of friends and their captivating teacher, Hannah Schneider. But when the drowning of one of Hannah’s friends and the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to a confluence of mysteries, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her gimlet-eyed instincts and cultural references to guide--or misguide--her.
• Useful Fools by C.A. Schmidt / Summary: Alonso, a dirt-poor teenager living in Peru, helps out at the public health clinic his mother, Magdalena, opened, so that he can see Rosa, the beautiful and wealthy daughter of the clinic's doctor. Alonso and Rosa are both shattered when Magdalena is assassinated by a revolutionary terrorist organization. Left with no hope, Alonso might be seduced into becoming a guerrilla in the same organization that killed his mother. Rosa becomes disgusted with her fathers complacency and leaves wealth and safety behind to somehow help what is left of Alonsos family. In this coming-of-age novel, C. A. Schmidt tells the story of how love can find its way through poverty and war.

Videos (DVD & VHS):

• Chuck Close : a Portrait in Progress [DVD ] / Summary: Since 1969, when Chuck Close's first series of black-and-white portraits was exhibited, his paintings have fascinated the public and raised critical controversy. Created from Polaroid photographs, Close's huge close-ups (some as tall as 9 feet) are severe, confrontational, and wholly compelling. Featuring interviews with Close, Chuck Close : a Portrait in Progress traces the artist's evolution. Close, who paints in the pointillist style, spends months on one painting. Today, his "mug shots" brim with warm colors. Dubbed the "mayor of Soho," he specializes in portraits of fellow artists, such as Jasper Johns who is interviewed in this program. The affable Close appears throughout, discussing his childhood learning disabilities and how, despite the 1989 illness that left him nearly completely paralyzed, he continues to triumph artistically.
• In Search of Myths & Heroes [DVD] / Summary: Follows Michael Wood as he travels in search of the truth behind four famous legends. Explores not only the historical past and literal truth of these myths, but also the mythic past and archetypal stories behind them. Examines the Biblical myth of the Queen of Sheba, an exotic and mysterious woman of power who, with King Solomon, plays a key role in the founding myths of the modern states of Israel and Ethiopia. Traces the Celtic legend of King Arthur and its role in British literature. Asks whether the legendary Shangri-La as depicted in James Hilton's Lost horizon could have its roots in Indian views of Tibet or in the Tibetan Buddhist stories of the land of Shambhala, a paradise behind the Himalayas. Discusses the Greek hero Jason and his quest for the golden fleece.
• A Streetcar Named Desire [DVD] / Summary: Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following WWII, this is a story of Blanche DuBois, a fragile and neurotic woman on a desperate prowl for someplace in the world to call her own. An uncensored version of the story of a repressed widow who visits her sister in New Orleans and is raped and driven mad by her brother-in-law.

Audio Recordings:

• The Caedmon Poetry Collection : a Century of Poets Reading Their Work [three CDs] / Poems written and read by T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Louis MacNeice, Robert Graves, Gertrude Stein, E.E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, Stephen Spender, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound and others.
• Langston Hughes [CD] / Contents: Dressed up -- When Sue wears red -- Elevator boy -- My people -- Long trip -- Negro dancers -- Ma Lord -- Merry-go-round -- I, too -- Dream keeper -- Dreams -- Water-front streets -- Aunt Sue's stories -- As I grew older -- The weary blues -- Wide river -- Homesick blues -- Afro-American fragment -- The negro speaks of rivers -- Negro -- American heartbreak -- Dream variations -- Feet o'Jesus -- Prayer -- Fire -- Judgement Day -- Bad morning -- Could be -- Bad luck card -- Life is fine -- Bound no'th blues -- Roland Hayes beaten -- Silhouette -- One way ticket -- Graduation -- Mother to son -- Border line -- Genius child -- Suicide's note -- Midnight raffle -- Miss Blues'es child -- Dream boogie -- Motto -- Flatted fifths -- Harlem -- Words like freedom -- Tomorrow -- No regrets -- Too blue -- Little old letter -- Mississippi levee -- Morning after -- Reverie on the Harlem River – Wake. Read by the author.
• Robert Frost [CD] / Summary: Robert Frost reads from a selection of his own poetry.
• T. S. E. [CD] / T. S. Eliot / Contents: La figlia che piange -- The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock -- Gerontion -- Sweeney among the nightingales -- The waste land -- The hollow men -- The journey of the Magi -- Ash-Wednesday -- East Coker. Read by the author.
• W. H. Auden [CD] / Summary: W H. Auden reads from a selection of his own poetry.