Like Eloise growing up in the Plaza Hotel, Charlotte Silver grew up in her mother's restaurant. Located in Harvard Square, Upstairs at the Pudding was a confection of pink linen tablecloths and twinkling chandeliers, a decadent backdrop for childhood. Over dinners of foie gras and Dover sole, always served with a Shirley Temple, Charlotte kept company with a rotating cast of eccentric staff members. After dinner, in her frilly party dress, she often caught a nap under the bar until closing time. Her one constant was her glamorous, indomitable mother, nicknamed "Patton in Pumps," a wasp-waisted woman in cocktail dress and stilettos who shouldered the burden of raising a family and running a kitchen. Charlotte's unconventional upbringing takes its toll, and as she grows up she wishes her increasingly busy mother were more of a presence in her life. But when the restaurant-forever teetering on the brink of financial collapse-looks as if it may finally be closing, Charlotte comes to realize the sacrifices her mother has made to keep the family and restaurant afloat and gains a new appreciation of the world her mother has built.

Infectious, charming, and at times wistful, Charlotte au Chocolat is a celebration of the magic of a beautiful presentation and the virtues of good manners, as well as a loving tribute to the author's mother-a woman who always showed her best face to the world.

Based on an 1839 boat trip Thoreau took with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts, to Concord, New Hampshire, and back, this classic of American literature is not only a vivid narrative of that journey, it is also a collection of thought-provoking observations on such diverse topics as poetry, literature, and philosophy, Native American and Puritan histories of New England, friendship, sacred Eastern writings, traditional Christianity, and much more.

Written, like Walden, while Thoreau lived at Walden Pond, and published in 1849, A Week (his first book) shares many themes with Walden, published in 1854. Both dramatize the process of self-renewal in nature and resolutely rail against the official culture and politics of the "trivial Nineteenth Century." Blending keen observation with a wealth of perceptive and informed reflections, Thoreau develops a continuous and lyrical dialogue between the past and present, as particular scenes on shore trigger reflections on the region's history and legends.　

Originally conceived as a travel book, A Week eventually became much more — one of the most intellectually ambitious works of 19th-century America, and a requiem for Thoreau's brother John, who died from a sudden illness in 1842.

Of Thoreau and this work, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "H. D. Thoreau is a great man in Concord, a man of original genius and character. I think it is a book of wonderful merit, which is to go far and last long."

"All I really wanted was to try and live the life that was spontaneously welling up within me. Why was that so very difficult?"

Generations of readers have recognized the impassioned cry that introduces the young narrator of Demian, and embraced this tale of a troubled young man's struggle toward self-awareness. Initially published in Berlin in 1919, the novel met with instant critical acclaim, as well as great popular success among people seeking answers amid the devastating aftermath of World War I.

A brilliant psychological portrait of an individual's departure from social conventions in the search for spiritual fulfillment, Demian encompasses many of the themes associated with Hermann Hesse, its Noble Prize–winning author, particularly the duality of human nature and the quest for inner peace.

Considered an important work in the evolution of 20th-century European literature, this perceptive coming-of-age novel enjoys a particular resonance with young adults, a fact that has made Demian a perennial favorite in schools and colleges all over the world. This inexpensive edition, featuring an excellent new English translation, is sure to be welcomed by teachers and students, and by the legions of confirmed Hesse fans.

Newspaperman, short-story writer, poet, and satirist, Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) is one of the most striking and unusual literary figures America has produced. Dubbed "Bitter Bierce" for his vitriolic wit and biting satire, his fame rests largely on a celebrated compilation of barbed epigrams, The Devil's Dictionary, and a book of short stories (Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, 1891). Most of the 16 selections in this volume have been taken from the latter collection.

The stories in this edition include: "What I Saw at Shiloh," "A Son of the Gods," "Four Days in Dixie," "One of the Missing," "A Horseman in the Sky," "The Coup de Grace," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Story of Conscience," "One Kind of Officer," "Chickamauga," and five more.

Bierce's stories employ a buildup of suggestive realistic detail to produce grim and vivid tales often disturbing in their mood of fatalism and impending calamity. Hauntingly suggestive, they offer excellent examples of the author's dark pessimism and storytelling power.

Jack London's novels and ruggedly individual life seemed to embody American hopes, frustrations, and romantic longings in the turbulent first years of the twentieth century, years infused with the wonder and excitement of great technological and historic change. The author's restless spirit, taste for a life of excitement, and probing mind led him on a series of hard-edged adventures from the Klondike to the South Seas. Out of these sometimes harrowing experiences — and his fascination with the theories of such thinkers as Darwin, Spencer, and Marx — came the inspiration for novels of adventure that would make him one of America’s most popular writers.

The Call of the Wild, considered by many London's greatest novel, is a gripping tale of a heroic dog that, thrust into the brutal life of the Alaska Gold Rush, ultimately faces a choice between living in man's world and returning to nature. Adventure and dog-story enthusiasts as well as students and devotees of American literature will find this classic work a thrilling, memorable reading experience.

When White Fang was first published in 1906, Jack London was well on his way to becoming one of the most famous, popular, and highly paid writers in the world. White Fang stands out as one of his finest achievements, a spellbinding novel of life in the northern wilds.

In gripping detail, London bares the savage realities of the battle for survival among all species in a harsh, unyielding environment. White Fang is part wolf, part dog, a ferocious and magnificent creature through whose experiences we see and feel essential rhythms and patterns of life in the animal kingdom and among mankind as well.

It is, above all, a novel that keenly observes the extraordinary working of one of nature's greatest gifts to its creatures: the power to adapt. Focusing on this wondrous process, London created in White Fang a classic adventure story as fresh and appealing for today's audiences as for those who made him among the bestselling novelists of his day.

In 1931, a young Austrian mathematician published an epoch-making paper containing one of the most revolutionary ideas in logic since Aristotle. Kurt Gödel maintained, and offered detailed proof, that in any arithmetic system, even in elementary parts of arithmetic, there are propositions which cannot be proved or disproved within the system. It is thus uncertain that the basic axioms of arithmetic will not give rise to contradictions. The repercussions of this discovery are still being felt and debated in 20th-century mathematics.

The present volume reprints the first English translation of Gödel's far-reaching work. Not only does it make the argument more intelligible, but the introduction contributed by Professor R. B. Braithwaite (Cambridge University}, an excellent work of scholarship in its own right, illuminates it by paraphrasing the major part of the argument.

This Dover edition thus makes widely available a superb edition of a classic work of original thought, one that will be of profound interest to mathematicians, logicians and anyone interested in the history of attempts to establish axioms that would provide a rigorous basis for all mathematics. Translated by B. Meltzer, University of Edinburgh. Preface. Introduction by R. B. Braithwaite.

The second of Kant's three critiques, Critique of Practical Reason forms the center of Kantian philosophy; published in 1788, it is bookended by his Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Judgement. With this work Kant establishes his role as a vindicator of the truth of Christianity; he approaches his proof by presenting positive affirmation of the immortality of the soul and the existence of God. The philosopher offers an argument concerning the summum bonum of life: people should not simply search after happiness, but follow the moral law and seek to become worthy of the happiness that God can bestow.

This Critique comprises three sections: the Analytic, the Dialectic, and the Doctrine of Method. The Analytic defines the ultimate moral principle, the categorical imperative, and argues that to obey it is to exercise a freedom. The Dialectic make the assumption that immortality and God exist, arguing that pure practical reason falls into error when it expects perfection in this world; we should anticipate finding perfection in the next world, with God's help. The final section, the Doctrine of Method, offers suggestions in educating people in the use of pure practical reason.

A seminal text in the history of moral philosophy, this volume offers the most complete statement of Kant's theory of free will and a full development of his practical metaphysics.

"A mathematician named Klein
Thought the Moebius band was divine.
Said he: 'If you glue
The edges of two,
You'll get a weird bottle like mine.' " — Stephen Barr

In this lively book, the classic in its field, a master of recreational topology invites readers to venture into such tantalizing topological realms as continuity and connectedness via the Klein bottle and the Moebius strip. Beginning with a definition of topology and a discussion of Euler's theorem, Mr. Barr brings wit and clarity to these topics:

• New Surfaces (Orientability, Dimension, The Klein Bottle, etc.)
• The Shortest Moebius Strip
• The Conical Moebius Strip
• The Klein Bottle
• The Projective Plane (Symmetry)
• Map Coloring
• Networks (Koenigsberg Bridges, Betti Numbers, Knots)
• The Trial of the Punctured Torus
• Continuity and Discreteness ("Next Number," Continuity, Neighborhoods, Limit Points)
• Sets (Valid or Merely True? Venn Diagrams, Open and Closed Sets, Transformations, Mapping, Homotopy)

With this book and a square sheet of paper, the reader can make paper Klein bottles, step by step; then, by intersecting or cutting the bottle, make Moebius strips. Conical Moebius strips, projective planes, the principle of map coloring, the classic problem of the Koenigsberg bridges, and many more aspects of topology are carefully and concisely illuminated by the author's informal and entertaining approach.

Now in this inexpensive paperback edition, Experiments in Topology belongs in the library of any math enthusiast with a taste for brainteasing adventures in the byways of mathematics.

Based on modern Sobolev methods, this text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students is highly physical in its orientation. It integrates numerical methods and symbolic manipulation into an elegant viewpoint that is consonant with implementation by digital computer. The first five sections form an informal introduction that develops students' physical and mathematical intuition. The following section introduces Hilbert space in its natural environment, and the next six sections pose and solve the standard problems. The final seven sections feature concise introductions to selected topics, including Sturm-Liouville problems, Fourier integrals, Galerkin's method, and Sobolev methods. 2004 revised edition. 64 figures. Exercises.

Text deals with subgroups, permutation groups, automorphisms and finitely generated abelian groups, normal series, commutators and derived series, solvable and nilpotent groups, the group ring and monomial representations, Frattini subgroup, factorization, linear gorups, and representations and characters—in all, 431 problems. Full solutions to problems in separate section.

This textbook for advanced courses in group theory focuses on finite groups, with emphasis on the idea of group actions. Early chapters summarize presupposed facts, identify important themes, and establish the notation used throughout the book. Subsequent chapters explore the normal and arithmetical structures of groups as well as applications.

Topics include the normal structure of groups: subgroups; homomorphisms and quotients; series; direct products and the structure of finitely generated Abelian groups; and group action on groups. Additional subjects range from the arithmetical structure of groups to classical notions of transfer and splitting by means of group action arguments. More than 675 exercises, many accompanied by hints, illustrate and extend the material.

Highly regarded for its exceptional clarity, imaginative and instructive exercises, and fine writing style, this concise book offers an ideal introduction to the fundamentals of topology. Originally conceived as a text for a one-semester course, it is directed to undergraduate students whose studies of calculus sequence have included definitions and proofs of theorems. The book's principal aim is to provide a simple, thorough survey of elementary topics in the study of collections of objects, or sets, that possess a mathematical structure.

The author begins with an informal discussion of set theory in Chapter 1, reserving coverage of countability for Chapter 5, where it appears in the context of compactness. In the second chapter Professor Mendelson discusses metric spaces, paying particular attention to various distance functions which may be defined on Euclidean n-space and which lead to the ordinary topology.

Chapter 3 takes up the concept of topological space, presenting it as a generalization of the concept of a metric space. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to a discussion of the two most important topological properties: connectedness and compactness. Throughout the text, Dr. Mendelson, a former Professor of Mathematics at Smith College, has included many challenging and stimulating exercises to help students develop a solid grasp of the material presented.

A stimulating excursion into pure mathematics aimed at "the mathematically traumatized," but great fun for mathematical hobbyists and serious mathematicians as well. Requiring only high school algebra as mathematical background, the book leads the reader from simple graphs through planar graphs, Euler's formula, Platonic graphs, coloring, the genus of a graph, Euler walks, Hamilton walks, and a discussion of The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter.

Although mathematics majors are usually conversant with number theory by the time they have completed a course in abstract algebra, other undergraduates, especially those in education and the liberal arts, often need a more basic introduction to the topic.

In this book the author solves the problem of maintaining the interest of students at both levels by offering a combinatorial approach to elementary number theory. In studying number theory from such a perspective, mathematics majors are spared repetition and provided with new insights, while other students benefit from the consequent simplicity of the proofs for many theorems.

Among the topics covered in this accessible, carefully designed introduction are multiplicativity-divisibility, including the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, combinatorial and computational number theory, congruences, arithmetic functions, primitive roots and prime numbers. Later chapters offer lucid treatments of quadratic congruences, additivity (including partition theory) and geometric number theory.

Of particular importance in this text is the author's emphasis on the value of numerical examples in number theory and the role of computers in obtaining such examples. Exercises provide opportunities for constructing numerical tables with or without a computer. Students can then derive conjectures from such numerical tables, after which relevant theorems will seem natural and well-motivated.

George E. Andrews, Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, author of the well-established text Number Theory (first published by Saunders in 1971 and reprinted by Dover in 1994), has led an active career discovering fascinating phenomena in his chosen field — number theory. Perhaps his greatest discovery, however, was not solely one in the intellectual realm but in the physical world as well.

In 1975, on a visit to Trinity College in Cambridge to study the papers of the late mathematician George N. Watson, Andrews found what turned out to be one of the actual Holy Grails of number theory, the document that became known as the "Lost Notebook" of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. It happened that the previously unknown notebook thus discovered included an immense amount of Ramanujan's original work bearing on one of Andrews' main mathematical preoccupations — mock theta functions. Collaborating with colleague Bruce C. Berndt of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Andrews has since published the first two of a planned three-volume sequence based on Ramanujan's Lost Notebook, and will see the project completed with the appearance of the third volume in the next few years.

In the Author's Own Words:
"It seems to me that there's this grand mathematical world out there, and I am wandering through it and discovering fascinating phenomena that often totally surprise me. I do not think of mathematics as invented but rather discovered." — George E. Andrews

An Introduction to Information Theory : Symbols, Signals and Noise (Dover Books on Mathematics) by John R. Pierce - Paperback

"Uncommonly good...the most satisfying discussion to be found." — Scientific American.

Behind the familiar surfaces of the telephone, radio, and television lies a sophisticated and intriguing body of knowledge known as information theory. This is the theory that has permitted the rapid development of all sorts of communication, from color television to the clear transmission of photographs from the vicinity of Jupiter. Even more revolutionary progress is expected in the future.

To give a solid introduction to this burgeoning field, J. R. Pierce has revised his well-received 1961 study of information theory for a second edition. Beginning with the origins of the field, Dr. Pierce follows the brilliant formulations of Claude Shannon and describes such aspects of the subject as encoding and binary digits, entropy, language and meaning, efficient encoding, and the noisy channel. He then goes beyond the strict confines of the topic to explore the ways in which information theory relates to physics, cybernetics, psychology, and art. Mathematical formulas are introduced at the appropriate points for the benefit of serious students. A glossary of terms and an appendix on mathematical notation are proved to help the less mathematically sophisticated.

J. R. Pierce worked for many years at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he became Director of Research in Communications Principles. His Introduction to Information Theory continues to be the most impressive nontechnical account available and a fascinating introduction to the subject for lay readers.

Essayist, poet, and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) propounded a transcendental idealism emphasizing self-reliance, self-culture, and individual expression. The six essays and one address included in this volume, selected from Essays, First Series (1841) and Essays, Second Series(1844), offer a representative sampling of his views outlining that moral idealism as well as a hint of the later skepticism that colored his thought. In addition to the celebrated title essay, the others included here are "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet," and "Experience," plus the well-known and frequently read Harvard Divinity School Address.

“A novel of finely articulated tragic power. . . . Little short of a work of genius.” --The New York Times Book Review 

Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy. In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher’s passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination.

“Memorable. . . . Profound in its vision of humanity, of religion, and of art.”--The Wall Street Journal

“Such a feeling of freshness, of something brand-new. . . . Attention-holding and ultimately moving.” --The New York Times 

“Engrossing and illuminating.” --Miami Herald

Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. But in time, his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a modern classic.

"Close-up card magic is performed right under the noses of the spectators. It has an immediacy that cannot be duplicated by platform magic. Seasoned professionals agree there is no better way to learn how to handle an audience than when they are inches away." — Karl Fulves.

Karl Fulves is one of the most popular and respected magic authorities writing today. In Self-Working Close-Up Card Magic he shows beginners how to perform 56 tried-and-true, crowd-pleasing tricks for the kind of small, close-up audiences that gather at parties and family get-togethers. The tricks are simple to master. The performer needs only a deck of cards and a few everyday objects like a coin or a rubber band. The kind of close-up performing these tricks require offers beginners the best possible way to learn how to engage and handle an audience.

Among the tricks are "openers," which quickly get an audience's attention and set the stage for the rest of the act; memory tricks that make it appear the performer has an uncanny ability to memorize cards; gambling tricks that seem to give the performer an expert ability to control the cards in games of chance; and "gimmicked" cards that create eye-popping visual magic. Simple step-by-step instructions, accompanied by clear, carefully drawn illustrations, make these applause-winning tricks absolutely foolproof, requiring no long practice or dexterity to perform.

What is a self-working card trick? A trick that does not depend upon legerdemain or special abilities on the part of the magician, but a trick that works automatically because of the mathematics inherent in the card deck itself. Long practice and supernormal dexterity are not needed to perform these tricks, yet they are often among the most entertaining and most spectacular of all card tricks.

Some of these sure-fire tricks are simple, a good place to begin. Others were specially adapted from professional routines and are here presented for the first time for amateurs. Almost all of these tricks can be worked informally, with a borrowed deck of cards. Some also adapt to stage presentation.

Individual tricks in this book have sold for more than the price of the entire book. Amateurs can use them to get a start in magic and to feel, at once, the rewards of giving a professional performance. Advanced and professional magicians will find tricks to add to their acts or informal routines. Author Karl Fulves is one of the best-known writers and editors in the field of magic.

Money and magic — a combination that never fails to attract attention! With this helpful and revealing book, even novices can astound friends and relatives with mystifying magical feats requiring little more than common coins and paper currency.

Written by one of today's foremost authorities on self-working magic tricks (those that need no special dexterity or long hours of practice), this how-to book features an impressive array of 92 simple-to-do tricks sure to dazzle any audience.

Clearly worded instructions and 251 illustrations show beginning as well as veteran conjurers how to pluck a seemingly endless number of coins from the air, make a coin penetrate a tabletop, and perform psychic tricks with coins and bills. "Quick Print" lets you apparently print a genuine $5 bill on blank paper, while "Bunco Bills" takes the audience behind the scenes to expose the methods of the shortchange artist. Other intriguing illusions include "Metal Bending," "Tower of Nickels," "Balancing Act," "Thru the Ring," "Immovable Object," "Sealed-Box Mystery," and dozens of other phenomenal tricks.

No previous experience is necessary to perform these tricks and apart from the required currency, most call for nothing more than a few easy-to-find items (tabletop, cup, handkerchief, playing cards, etc.). Almost all can be mastered in a short time.

"An excellent introduction to mentalism and mental magic. It covers a broad range of mentalism methods, tools, and techniques. Also, each chapter moves at a good progression from the simplest to the most advanced. Yet even the most advanced stuff is not beyond the reach of beginner." — Magic Reviewed

Karl Fulves, one of the most renowned modern writers in the field of magic, presents 67 new and foolproof tricks — spectacular mental feats that seem impossible but are easy to perform. None of the tricks requires long practice, supernormal dexterity, or complicated apparatus. Mr. Fulves' precise, easy-to-follow instruction and many helpful diagrams lead to quick mastery and effective performance of each. Perform mystifying mental magic in such categories as Instant ESP Psychic Secrets, Slate Sorcery, Mind Reading with Cards, Mind over Matter, Miracles with Cards, Book Tests, and Psychometry.

Many of these tricks can be done with no prior preparation, and all involve easy-to-find materials: a deck of cards, coins, matches, dice, keys, chalk, etc. But while the materials are ordinary, the effects are truly extraordinary. Magicians who wish to add mental acts to their routines, party entertainers, or anyone wishing to give an amazing performance of mental magic will find this book perfect for their needs.

More Self-Working Card Tricks : 88 Foolproof Card Miracles for the Amateur Magician (Dover Magic Books) by Karl Fulves

Card magic has captivated man for many centuries. Today, it remains the most popular area of legerdemain, accounting for half of all tricks performed by magicians.
Now Karl Fulves, noted writer in the field of magic, has compiled a new treasury of foolproof card tricks, the definitive sequel to his popular Self-Working Card Tricks. This book contains a wealth of new material — captivating and baffling card wizardry that will amaze your audience and astonish even accomplished magicians.
Fulves shows you how to perform such classic card maneuvers as Miraskil, The Open Prediction, Flip Top and The Jaks Two-Deck Trick. Clear, easy-to-follow directions, complemented by 96 instructive illustrations, help guide the novice through each trick.
Chapters on special areas of card magic and technique include: Impromptu Card Tricks; Two-Deck Card Tricks; Telephone Tricks; Telepathy with Cards; Riffle-Shuffle Setups; and Gambling Secrets.
Neither great dexterity nor long hours of practice are required to master tricks offered in this collection — all succeed instantly by virtue of the step-by-step instructions.
Discover how this rich assortment of self-working tricks will mystify and delight friends and relatives — anyone intrigued by the ancient appeal of "card magic."

Self-Working Number Magic : 101 Foolproof Tricks (Dover Magic Books) by Karl Fulves

Numbers pervade nearly every aspect of our daily lives: telephone numbers, zip codes, Social Security numbers, driver's license and credit-card numbers. We are beleaguered by numbers: no wonder we're fascinated, intrigued, even a bit bewildered by them; no wonder tricks involving numbers are perennial favorites.

With Self-Working Number Magic you can perform show-stopping tricks, stunts and routines that are sure to delight audiences because they capitalize on our natural fascination for numbers. Karl Fulves, well-known writer in the field of magic presents 101 baffling tricks that are so easy to do they practically work by themselves. While all the tricks involve basic mathematical principles, the mathematics is not discussed here; rather, emphasis is on performing and perfecting the tricks. They can be learned quickly and put into operation immediately, and best of all, they really dazzle an audience.

Among the seemingly impossible tricks and stunts in this book: guessing a spectator's age or how long a married couple have known each other; predicting the sum of a group of numbers and using your brain like a lightning calculator; and instantly memorizing long lists of numbers or things. This selection also includes tricks involving cards, calendars, magic squares, and betting games. The author even suggests stage patter to use while performing.

With this book and a modicum of practice, anyone can perform an assortment of number tricks that will astound and delight an audience. Whatever your age or math skills, you'll soon be baffling friends and relatives with over 100 fascinating, foolproof tricks.

For centuries, rope tricks have been staples of the magician's repertoire. Surprisingly, many of the best ones are "self-working," meaning they do not require unusual dexterity or long hours of practice. This excellent guidebook, written by one of today's foremost authorities on magic, presents 70 of the best, most amazing self-working rope tricks ever devised — tricks that amateur magicians can master in a short time.

After a brief introduction and a section devoted to acquiring and preparing the proper ropes, Karl Fulves begins the book by introducing rope tricks based on simple overhand knots, slip knots and square knots. These are followed by such tricks as the "Vishnu Rope Mystery" and the "Hindu Turban Mystery" in the chapter entitled "Cut-and-Restored Rope." In "Ropes That Think" he demonstrates such fascinating maneuvers as "Liar's Ropes" and "Séance." You'll also learn how to do a one-hand figure eight, perform a "double-ring ceremony" and make an endless chain.

Novice magicians as well as veterans can learn these foolproof tricks quickly and easily with Karl Fulves' clearly worded instructions and over 400 step-by-step illustrations. Along with the specifics of how to perform each trick, Mr. Fulves provides helpful phrases and bits of patter to help readers present each routine with a professional flourish.

Self-Working Table Magic : 97 Foolproof Tricks with Everyday Objects (Dover Magic Books) by Karl Fulves

The quickest, most certain path toward achieving a reputation as a magician is to be able to perform at a moment's notice with borrowed objects. If you are handed a coin, handkerchief, pencil, or rubber band, you should be able to do at least one amazing trick with that object. This book deals exclusively with just such tricks. It is a collection of some of the best tricks with ordinary objects.

The approach throughout the book is simple. No unusual dexterity, gimmicks, or special sleights are required. The only props needed are simple, everyday objects — eggs, cards, dice, rubber bands, balloons, apples, whisk brooms, etc. Nor are long hours of practice necessary. Step-by-step instructions and over 180 helpful illustrations insure quick and effective mastery of each trick. Nearly 100 tricks in 10 categories include Money Magic, Elastic Illusions, Magic Show in a Matchbox, Hanky Panky, Dice Dexterity, Close-up Illusions, Conjuror's Collection, The Linking Pins, Psychic Tricks, and Pen-Ultimate Magic
Some chapters have been designed to provide the reader with a complete act of close-up magic. For example, the chapter entitled "Magic Show in a Matchbox," gives you about 15 minutes of excellent tricks and stunts to amaze and amuse your audience. Master the tricks in this book and you will be ready to entertain anytime, anywhere, with some of the finest of all close-up mysteries.

Karl Fulves, one of the most renowned modern writers in the field of magic, has selected these tricks from both old and new magic stunts. Some are classic feats of time-tested wizardry, while others are new and inventive techniques. All, however, are easy-to-learn, foolproof routines that will enable you to dazzle and delight your audience.

Here's an excellent guidebook for people who want to learn how to perform card tricks without having to spend wearisome hours practicing.

Thirteen diagrams and easy-to-follow directions provide the novice with fundamentals for successfully mastering more than 50 impressive techniques — among them The False Shuffle, The Corner Crimp, Sensitive Finger Tips, Palming, The Glide, The Slip Force, and Reading the Pack. No special dexterity is needed to successfully complete any of these methods.

With its special emphasis on presenting magic for the spectator's entertainment, Card Tricks for Beginners was acclaimed by Hugard's Magic Monthly as "extremely well done."

Self-Working Handkerchief Magic : 61 Foolproof Tricks (Dover Magic Books) by Karl Fulves

"A great deal. The book is smartly organized. A great resource for any magician." — My Lovely Assistant

Sixty-one great tricks: pass objects through a handkerchief, dissolve handkerchief knots, make handkerchiefs appear and disappear, transform a handkerchief into an animated mouse, restore a handkerchief cut in half. Learn all the secrets of folds and knots essential to this type of magic. 509 illustrations.

About the Author

Karl Fulves is one of the most respected authorities in the field of magic. For over 40 years, he has written hundreds of books on the subject and taught the art of illusion to thousands of people of all ages. This legendary figure also edited and published such magazines as Epilogue and The Pallbearers Review.

An acorn falls far from the tree

Former Chicago lawyer Ben Holiday was very proud and quite happy. And why shouldn't he be? The Magic Kingdom which he ruled as High Lord was finally at peace. He was free to lie back and watch as his new daughter grew.

And grow she did--by leaps and bournds, shooting through infancy in a matter of months. She took her first steps and learned to swim in the same week. An amalgam of magic and heredity, Mistaya was born a seedling, nourished by soils from Landover, Earth, and the fairy mists, come into being in the dank, misty deadness of the Deep Fell. She was as lovely as her mother, the sylph Willow, with dazzling green eyes that cut to the soul. Ben wished he could enjoy his daughter's childhood and his happy kingdom forever.

Alas, those idyllic days were not to last. For Rydall, king of lands beyond the fairy mist, rode up to the gates of Sterling Silver and shattered peace of Landover. His armies were poised on the border, ready to invade unless Ben accepted a challenge: Rydall would send seven champions to face Ben, each in a different form. If Ben triumphed over all seven, Rydall would then abandon his claims to the kingdom.

Some counseled the High Lord to refuse Rydall's challenge, but Holiday could not, for Mistaya had been snatched from her guardians by foul magic. And Rydall held the key to her fate...

Among the masters of modern French literature, André Gide (1869–1951) concerned himself with the motivation and function of the will, with self-cultivation, and the conduct of the individual in the modern world. His perception, integrity, and purity of style brought him much acclaim, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947.

The Immoralist (written in 1901, published in 1902), one of his best-known works, deals with the unhappy consequences of amoral hedonism. Filled with similarities of Gide's own life, it is the story of Michel, who, during three years of travel in Europe and North Africa, tries to rise above good and evil and allow his passions (including his attraction to young Arab boys) free rein; in doing so, he neglects his wife, Marceline, who eventually dies of tuberculosis. The book is in the form of Michel's attempt to justify his conduct to his friends.

Notable for its fusion of autobiographical elements with both biblical and classical clarity and lack of clutter, The Immoralist marks a decided shift in Gide's prose style and a somewhat decadent floweriness to his later classical clarity and lack of clutter. This nobility and simplicity of style is skillfully retained in this excellent new translation by Stanley Appelbaum, which also preserves the passion and intensity of the original.

One of the most famous poems in the English language, "The Raven" first appeared in the January 29, 1845, edition of the New York Evening Mirror. It brought Edgar Allan Poe, then in his mid-30s and a well-known poet, critic, and short story writer, his first taste of celebrity on a grand scale. "The Raven" remains Poe's best-known work, yet it is only one of a dazzling series of poems and stories that won him an enduring place in world literature.

This volume contains "The Raven" and 40 others of Edgar Allan Poe's most memorable poems, among them "The Bells," "Ulalume," "Israfel," "To Helen," "The Conqueror Worm," "Eldorado," and "Annabel Lee." Together they reveal the extraordinary spectrum of Poe's personality — his idealism; his visionary qualities; his responsiveness to beauty, to love, and to women; and his susceptibility to the eerie and the morbid. They reveal, too, his virtuoso command of poetic language, rhythms, and figures of speech — command that would make his one of the most distinctive voices in all of poetry.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1917, James Ford Rhodes's History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 stands among the essential works in American history. Remarkable for its scholarly research, objectivity and engrossing narrative style, this volume is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding studies — and the first unbiased history — of the Civil War.

The book presents a neutral approach to the bloody struggle, neither distorting nor coloring the facts. Rhodes worked methodically, collecting the evidence, considering the opinions of others, and then precisely and lucidly presenting his own conclusions. Distilling material from official military records, diaries, reminiscences, letters, memoirs, newspapers, manuscripts, books, and interviews, the author produced an essential, carefully weighed, and complete account. The critics agreed: "a clear outline of the Civil War . . . it is well worthy of the welcome it has already received." — American Historical Review. " . . . the author's notable faculty of summarizing without leaving out the spirit, the life, and the color of events . . . infuses his narrative with unusual power to re-create the time of which he writes." — The New York Times.

While the narrative is neutral, choosing neither villains nor heroes, the ideological direction of Rhodes's work is surprisingly current. In accord with such present-day interpreters of the Civil War period as James McPherson and Ken Burns, Rhodes saw the Civil War as essentially a fight for freedom, and focused upon Abraham Lincoln as the deciding factor in the granting of freedom and the winning of the war.

This Dover edition contains a cogent new introduction by John Herbert Roper, Richardson Professor of American History, Emory and Henry College, Emory, Virginia.