While a student, Franz Kappus began sending his poetry to a young Rainer Maria Rilke, seeking his advice. The resultant ten letters from Rilke, published after his death, contain words of luminous intimacy where Rilke shapes the ecstasy of youthful desire into a consideration of how to live life deliberately. Becoming an artist is an apprenticeship in solitude, seeking, and suffering. When initially asked by Herr Kappus whether his verses are good, Rilke counters with the dismissal of all such outward concerns, and an admonition to go inside oneself, to discover whether one’s poetic motives reach to the hidden recesses of the heart. For the artist is on his own, alone, centered in his innermost depths. Rilke next speaks of surrounding oneself with books, in which one may enter worlds of inconceivable greatness. In a subsequent letter he writes of the artist’s vocation as one of growing into the spirit of childhood, where everything that happens is forever a beginning. And he writes of moments of sorrow as a new thing entering us; and, unnoticed, becoming a part of our very life-blood. For Rilke, art is a way of living: becoming a poet or an artist is not so much about learning one’s craft as about becoming a certain kind of person. Act is preceded by being, so that an unrestrained devotion to the creative process must proceed from the nurturing of patience and a deepening of one’s interior life. An immense inner stillness, reaching through time, rightly precedes all efforts of artistic creation. Developing as an artist is not measured by time or any external markers: “Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree, which does not force its sap, and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them will come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them....” This is a book to encounter in youth and remain with into old age, a vade mecum in the school of artistic being and thoughtful living.

Letters to a Young Poet

Literature & Fiction

RILKE, RAINER MARIA

Essays & Correspondence

Greenpoint Books

1800 Mechanical Movements, Devices and Appliances (16th enlarged edition)

This extraordinary compendium of early-twentieth-century mechanical devices covers a seemingly inexhaustible variety of technological applications. Compiled as a ready reference for inventors, engineers, students of mechanics, and artisans, this volume's 1800 engravings—from simple diagrams to detailed cross-sections—provide a wealth of illustrated information, offering quick, clear, and satisfying explanations of the applications and inner-workings of a vast assortment of mechanical devices which appeared during the heyday of mechanical invention. These range from simple hooks and levers to complex machinery used in steam, hydraulic, air, and electric power, as well as navigation, gearing, clocks, and much more.

Science & Math

Hiscox, Gardner D.

Physics

The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature

---The Art of Animal Drawing will help artists at all levels improve their ability to draw animals both realistically and as caricatures. Ken Hultgten, a former animator for Walt Disney Studios, offers expert advice on catching the essential movement and character of animals. The emphasis is on drawings (with over 700 illustrations) so the student is able to view the development process of the drawing by example. Introductory chapters on the special techniques of drawing animals, the use of line, establishing mood and emotion, and conveying action, are followed by instruction on drawing the skeletal and muscular structure, along with the motion of individual animal forms. The author offers details on drawing dogs, horses, deer, cats, bears, foxes, kangaroos, rabbits, squirrels, elephants, cows and bulls, giraffes, camels, gorillas, pigs, and many more. His instruction on animal caricature is especially helpful to all those interested in the subject. Any artist — student, amateur, or professional — who is interested in drawing animals will want to own this essential guide to the subject.

Arts & Photography

Hultgren, Ken

Drawing

Medieval Costume and How to Make It

Clear and accurate in its guidance, Medieval Costume and How to Make It portrays the clothing of the 12th through the 15th centuries according to the wearer’s social class, with chapters divided to cover individual professions. So in addition to royal garments, here are the clothes of clerics, doctors, merchants, musicians, knights, artisans, farmers, and laborers—all with much useful historical information, and richly illustrated with images from tapestries and illuminated manuscripts of the period as well as drawings and diagrams. Helpful advice covers choosing fabrics; placement of seams; draping and folding garments; how to walk, dance, and climb stairs in flowing attire; and even the best methods of storage. There are also many interesting details of accessories found in different professions and situations. Students of medieval costume design, tailors, community theater and reenactment groups—all will welcome this sumptuous guidebook to medieval costume.

HARTLEY, Dorothy

Graphic Design

A History of Haiku (Volume One): From the Beginnings up to Issa

Blyth, R.H.

Poetry

A History of Haiku (Volume Two): From Issa up to the Present

The Spiritual Heritage of India

Politics & Social Sciences

Prabhavananda, Swami

Philosophy

The American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry

Religion & Spirituality

Miller, Perry

Christian Books & Bibles

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind and Mass Formation

Health, Fitness & Dieting

LE BON, Gustave

Psychology & Counseling

The Rise of Universities

History

Haskins, Charles Homer

Europe

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