Book Description
A rich source of information about the world's finest literature. Over 10,000 entries and 250 illustrations covering authors, works, and literary terms and topics from all eras and all parts of the world. Includes pronunciations.
Customer Reviews:
Handy one volume resource for basic information on writers, their works, and terms of art.......2006-01-11
This is a very handy resource to find short information articles on authors, literary works, major characters, terms of literary art, and a few pictures of the major writers. It is not limited to English and American writers, but it is European in focus - though there are writers and works from other parts of the world as well.
Each term has a pronunciation guide, which can be helpful. The articles are helpful, but brief. The biographical entries are also helpful, but cursory. It has to be that way in a book of this size given the number of terms covered. Additional bibliographical entries are not provided.
This is a handy resource if not as comprehensive as the dust jacket claims. Given the prices of used copies, it is a steal.
WOW-- Great Research Book.......2003-07-21
I bought this book because it was one of the recommendations by Writer's Digest to get a large resource in a compact package that gives descriptions of most of the worlds most known authors and what they have written. I had no idea how jam-packed it is with information. Highly recommended as a textbook for all English Majors and/or wanna-be writers!
I Use My Copy Frequently - A Valuable Resource.......2003-02-24
The Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature professes to be a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the world of literature - authors, works, terms, and topics - from all eras and all parts of the world. In my view this joint effort of Merriam Webster and Encyclopedia of Britannica is exactly what it claims to be. I have used this valuable resource for several years and I highly recommend it.
This is a rather heavy, thick book and not suitable for a carrying in a backpack. I keep my copy readily accessible in my favorite reading area. Whenever I look up a topic, I pencil-in a small check mark. My little check marks are now scattered throughout this reference book.
The short descriptive passages, generally around 100 to 500 words, are well written and often sufficiently intriguing that I find myself moving from one related topic to another. This compilation is ideal for students and teachers, but I recommend this single volume encyclopedia for anyone that enjoys literature.
The references include literary works, classic authors, contemporary authors, mythology and folklore, literary terms, literary styles, historical literary movements, scholars and critics, and literary awards and prizes. I rarely fail to find whatever I am looking for. I would be quite surprised if this compilation did not meet your needs.
I also have a copy of another good reference work, Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, possibly the best-known literary encyclopedia. Benet's compilation overlaps considerably with the Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, but the two are not identical.
Benet's reference work contains less literary references, most notably fewer literary terms and definitions. Benet's is less likely than Merriam-Webster to have a short essay on a specific literary work or poem. For example, Benet's does not have an entry for The Name of the Rose, I Sing the Body Electric, Love in the Time of Cholera, For the Union Dead, or many other titles found in Merriam Webster.
However, Benet's compilation is wider in scope, having many historical definitions (e.g., Napoleon Bonaparte, Congress of Vienna, Vietnam War, Vikings), more religious terms (e.g., trimurti - Hindu and tripitaka - Buddhist), and more art and music references (e.g., Grandma Moses, Picasso, and Mozart).
I give 5 stars to Merriam Webster and 4 stars to Benet.
A hefty overview.......2003-01-22
Merriam Webster's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LITERATURE is a 1200 page overview of literature, with entries documenting important written materials from antiquity to contemporary times. Arranged alphabetically, this volume is easy to use. Readers can look up authors, individual works, literary devices and forms, and schools of thought - the important ones are all there. Because so much is included, the entries themselves are short, usually one or two paragraphs. This volume is wonderful if you want to remind yourself of an author's major works or what the definition of a sonnet is. You can use the thumbnail entries as starting points for additional research, or as a quick way to check dates and titles.
As an overview of literature throughout the ages, this encyclopedia is well worth owning. If you want more in-depth analysis, I suggest looking for books particular to your topic of interest.
A must-have for all lovers of literature.......2001-03-25
This is an informative and interesting volume, equally valuable for research or just simply browsing. The entries are fairly brief, but serve as a good springboard for further investigation if one so desires. The important authors, works, and literary terms are all here. Truly a useful reference tool.
Product Description
"A comprehensive and authoritative guide to the world of literature -- authors, works, terms, and topics -- from all eras and all parts of the world."
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Reference books.(Column): An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Steven Moore
Manufacturer: Review of Contemporary Fiction
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ASIN: B00096Y3MG
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 1996. The length of the article is 567 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Reference books.(Column)
Author: Steven Moore
Publication:
The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1996
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 16
Issue: 2
Page: 197(2)
Article Type: Column
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Encyclopedia of Literature
Merriam Webster
Manufacturer: MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000OJOPIK |
Customer Reviews:
Once in a Lifetime Exhibit.......2007-04-06
I saw this exhibit at the Smithsonian three times! It was magnificent, and so is this book. It's a complete catalog of the exhibit, complete with high resolution photos of everything. If you are interested in ancient Bible manuscripts, this is the real deal. A treasure trove of information.
BR's review.......2007-03-22
The pictures are exceptional. i can spend hours just looking through it. I have already loaned it to a church friend to share in her disciple bible study class. I have taken it in to church to share. I will be reading and looking at this book for the rest of my life.
A wonderful resource.......2007-03-08
Anyone who is truly interested in the Bible should add this book to his or her library. The essays honor the inspired nature of biblical texts without ignoring the reality of the very human nature of their authorship and preservation. And the photographs of the various pieces of scripture are beautifully done.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Reference Material.......2007-09-01
This book explains the basics (and some more advanced concepts) of good graphic design without overwhelming the reader with technical terms nor "dumbing down" the vocabulary for the novice. There are plenty of colourful examples and the book follows its own advice! This book lacks, however, the specific steps to accomplish the different design goals, but this is probably due the many publishing packages available. It assumes the reader will figure that out for himself (or herself.) The book is a compact 200 page document that is filled with useful information from cover to cover and is a great addition to any designer's reference library.
Another successful design book from Before & After.......2007-06-13
Yet another great book from the folks at Before & After. I have the Before & After Page Design book and subscribe to the PDF magazine. Even with all that, I still liked the addition of this book. It covers the usual business situations like newsletters, stationery, logos, forms and charts. The ideas illustrated and dissected here were found to be light bulb creating. I was able to apply a few of the tips right away to some projects I was working on at the time.
Some of the nuggets I enjoyed most were the comparison and discussion of what typefaces are best for what text that can be applied to all sorts of type, logo creation and thought process and the charts. The charts were not just your average pie charts, but great design elements.
Again, I'm impressed by another Before & After project. The illustrations and explanations help new and intermediate designers improve the craft. I'm sure seasoned professionals can pick up a few tips too.
Excellent.......2007-03-09
This is a concise, easy to read book that seems to cover a large variety of publications and projects. I can open it up to any page and get new ideas and insights on projects I'm working on.
Great book for effective work.......2005-11-21
I am a former graphic worker and I now teach this matter to students who have no ideas of the state of the art.
The book is professionnal and easy to use, and all examples are so helpfull to any people who need advices in business graphics.
A great resource for ANY business.......2005-11-09
Before & After is one of my favorite design magazines. The project examples, step-by-step guidelines and practical articles have always been excellent resources for designers of all education and experiences levels. With Graphics for Business, author, designer and teacher John McWade teaches the reader how to make their business look great. The book is not logo or corporate identity specific. In addition to logo design, McWade covers the creation of newsletters, stationery, sales pieces and forms, and charts, reports, calendars and maps. Still, the logo and identity section of the book (44 pages of the volume) explains logos very well and provides great examples of how to design lettermarks, wordmarks, monograms, ligatures and other forms of identities. Playing with type, words, shapes and illustrative elements are all presented in fun and well-illustrated manner. The book will be a great addition to the design library of anyone interested in producing a strong image for their business, or that of a client. - Jeff Fisher, writer of bLog-oMotives and the "Logo Notions" column at CreativeLatitude.com
Average customer rating:
- Before&AfterPageDesign-Great Book!
- Dated but Useful
- Great tips.
- New to design?
- Good material for the starting designer
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Before & After Page Design
John McWade
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
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ASIN: 020179537X |
Book Description
Before and After magazine's focus on clarity and simplicity and its insistence on approaching design not as mere decoration but as an essential form of communication have won it legions of fans. If you're among them, you'll welcome the first book from B and A's founder and publisher. John McWade walks his own talk, bringing you a beautifully clear, cohesive, and elegant primer on page design. You'll learn by example how to design single-page and multi-page publications, brochures, and advertisements, applying the principles design professionals live by. You'll also learn how to choose the right font for your project, why one typeface works better than another, and lots more. Best of all, you'll discover how to think visually--transforming the images in your head into documents that communicate effectively on the page.
Customer Reviews:
Before&AfterPageDesign-Great Book!.......2007-09-30
This is a great and helpful book for graphic designers, beginning and advanced. It is a thin book, paperback, not heavy to carry around with you. It's also easy to read and understand. Also a great price/value. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about design. :) :)
Dated but Useful.......2007-07-24
Would rather recommend their beautiful magazine and/or PDF publications which come out irregularly. Every issue is a treat. Take caution however; sadly their customer service treats subscription problems with contempt.
Great tips........2007-06-29
I subscribe to the before & after website and decided to buy this book based on my satisfaction with that membership. The book has great design information. It's so helpful to have the here's what it looked like before and here's how it could be better aspects. It really helps me in my design work.
New to design?.......2006-07-09
This book is wonderful for designers new to design. It teaches you the basics rules and gives plenty of examples (before and after) of how to arrange elements and type.
Very "eye catching" solutions! I am an illustrator & this is a wonderful way to enhance and round out my creativity in my illustrations. A definite must for someone new.
Good material for the starting designer.......2006-02-27
Good book, teaches you the basics of desing this book should be purchased by people that are barely starting.
Book Description
Rich authoritative study of the book before Gutenberg. Nearly 200 photographic facsimiles of priceless documents. Comprehensive.
Customer Reviews:
An Exceedingly Convenient Reference!.......2003-06-01
The chief value of this work is in its collection of photographs of rare and unique manuscripts and its mass of empirical data; therefore this effort of Dr. David Diringer - 'THE BOOK BEFORE PRINTING: Ancient, Medieval, and Oriental (c.1953, 1982), becomes a nice compendium of evidence rather than a plausible theory of the development of the modern book.
Indeed this author's use of the word 'book' to designate any written material is a source of ambiguity as Dr. Diringer further refined his definition of a book to only the written word found "on perishible material such as wood, leather, or papyrus" (p. 48). So according to this author, only the written word found on clay, rolls, scrolls, leather parchments, linen, and waxed boards up to and including the codex are books - but not stone tablets, cave etchings, monument markings or metal stampings.
Though other studies begin their histories of the book with the codex (e.g. THE CODEX by Dr. Roberts; and THE BIRTH OF THE CODEX by C. H. Roberts), this author's extension of his book definition back to the furthest reaches of human civilization had inadvertently provided the reader with such a broad survey of data that few students will not be instructed by the many well chosen photographs of the rare and ancient manuscripts the author collected to use as examples of books.
In fact, the sheer volume of the photocopied documents almost compelled a reader to turn another page. In chronological order, each photocopy of a scroll, parchment, or codex coincided with Dr. Diringer's explanation of a period in a country's ancient history in which that document was produced. (This is a point where the author's expertise in writing tended to displace his main theme of book history). Yet some documents have achieved such a mythical quality, as 'Beowulf' or the 'Iliad' that it is striking to see a clear, legible photocopy on a following page.
Dr. Diringer made his work further interesting by juxtaposing several copies of ancient manuscripts for either penmanship, language, material, or size comparison. This is exceedingly convenient as the author provided a quick reference of distinguishing artifact features; such as: "National Hands" (p. 286) of 7th century Merovingian with the Visogothic cursive; and the 9th century Roman minuscule with the 10th century Benevendon script. The author provided a clear view of such esoteric documents as: the Lipit-Ishtar Law Code (4,500 B.C.); the Codex Sinaitus (4th century), and the earliest Japanese written document - the 'Shotoku Taishi (573 a.d.). Thus the mere perusal of THE BOOK BEFORE PRINTING will become a learning experience as the bibliophile might discover a rare document containing an alphabet or language (or the existence of a race) new to his studies. The sheer beauty and antiquity of some of these manuscripts, such as 'The Book of Kells', or the 15th century illuminated copy of 'Chaucer', and the clay Summerian tablet of the 'Hammurabi Law Code' written in cuneiform, are magnificent.
Originally published as THE HAND PRODUCED BOOK (c. 1953); THE BOOK BEFORE PRINTING is not so much a history of the book as it is many histories of the written word. Containing few mistakes (I found one spelling error on page 75; and the original title is still extant on top of each text page) Dr. Diringer had produced an excellent and valuable reference tool for the general reader as well as the scholar. If you need to choose a subject topic for an English, History, Archaeological, or palaeological disertation then THE BOOK BEFORE PRINTING might help you in that choice. So even if you don't believe that a scroll is a book, Dr. David Diringer's work is still worth reading.
Incredibly Comprehensive and Stimuating.......2002-08-17
"The Book Before Printing" by David Deringer is more than a book for bibliophiles: it is a mind-bogglingly comprehensive history of the roots of our common intellectual culture. From the oldest fragment of an Egyptian book c.2600 BCE, through clay tablets, papyrus, leather and parchment scrolls, to codices (that is, books as we have come to know them) in the early centuries of the Common Era, from prehistoric and non-literate symbolic/memnonic schemes, through early writing systems of Africa and Asia, to alphabets and scripts, Diringer examines every bit of evidence that was available up to the early 50's, when the book was written, to reveal archeological, cultural, linguistic, and religious trends through the millenia, and how scribes functioned, in their various settings, to bring us what remains of of distant literary past. He delves into the remotest corners of the globe for unexpected insights and manuscripts. Illustrations are abundant and well-described. I can only wonder what an edition updated to include all the most recent discoveries would be like. Probably huge! But even as it is,this book is a goldmine of information, and a feast for the mind.
For bibliophiles and bibliomanes.......2002-02-21
This is a reprint of Diringer's "The Hand-produced Book". If you like books, you will LOVE this. You will beat yourself on the head and say, "Where has it been all my life?"
Diringer wrote "The Alphabet" and "The Illuminated Book", as well. All of these are easily accessible to the educated layman, and each is a rollicking good time. Alphabet and Illuminated are out of print. I found each of the 3 titles through the interlibrary loan program, but it would be a groove to actually own them.
Diringer is erudite, with a charming style. The illustrations in all the books are excellent.
What are you waiting for? THIS IS IT.
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Breaking into Print: Before and After the Printing Press
Stephen Krensky , and
Bonnie Christensen
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (Juv)
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Binding: Hardcover
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Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei
ASIN: 0316503762 |
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Before Copyright: The French Book-Privilege System 14981526 (Cambridge Studies in Publishing and Printing History)
Elizabeth Armstrong
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521893151 |
Book Description
When printing first began, a new book automatically fell into the public domain upon publication. Only a special law or privilegium enacted by a competent authority could protect it from being reprinted without the consent of the author or publisher. Such privileges for books are attested before 1480, but in Germany and Italy their efficacy was limited to a relatively small area by the political fragmentation of the country. During the 1480s and 1490s France became one of Europe’s main centres of book production and, as competition intensified, privileges were sought there from 1498. Although privileges were to last as long as the Ancien Régime, the period to 1526 is the least-known stage of their development and the most important. Most privilege-holders printed the full text of their grant, and many others a summary.
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Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia : Fourth Edition (Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia)
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